From the 1950 Sears Book Club edition of The Goldsmith’s Wife:

Jean Plaidy writes about herself:

“I consider myself extremely lucky to have been born in London, and to have spent my childhood there; and to have had on my doorstep this most fascinating of cities with so many relics of 2,000 years of history still to be found in its streets. One of my greatest pleasures was, and still is, exploring London.

Circumstances arose which brought mu school life to an abrupt termination, and I went hastily to a business college where I studies shorthand, type-writing and languages. And so I had to set about the business of earning a living.

For the next two or three years I filled many posts. I have handled unique opals and pearls of great price in Hatton Garden, and was once engaged as an interpreter to French and German patrons of a city cafe, where, luckily for me, no Germans ever came, and the French who did were very gallant.

I found that married life gave me the necessary freedom–even during the war when I did a part-time job in a Ministry–to follow an ambition which had been with me since my childhood; and so I started to write in earnest.”

Mini-bio from a Pan paperback (1976 printing):

“Due to illness, Jean Plaidy was unable to go to school regularly and so taught herself to read. Very early on, she developed a passion for the ‘past’. After doing a shorthand and typing course, she spent a couple of years doing various things, including sorting gems in Hatton Garden and translating for foreigners in a City cafe. She began writing in earnest following marriage and now has a large number of historical novels to her name. Inspiration for her books is drawn from odd sources — a picture gallery, a line from a book, Shakespeare’s inconsistencies. She lives in London and loves music, secondhand book shops and ancient buildings. Jean Plaidy also writes under the pseudonym of Victoria Holt.”