Jean Ure (pronounced "ewer") was born in Catherham, Surrey, England, January 1, 1943. Ure is a compulsive writer who has continued nonstop ever since she first learned to write. Her first piece, at the age of four: M'Daddy had a boot lace, M'Daddy did it loose, And when the rain began to pour, There it was a-hanging on the door.

At fourteen Ure wrote a wish-fulfillment book called Dance for Two. The young protagonist, Colleen, desperately wants to learn ballet but cannot because of lack of family finances. Ure was Colleen, who was never allowed to study ballet, but Colleen as part of Ure's imagination did and ended up dancing the lead in Coppelia.

Ure wrote many novels that were never published, but when she was sixteen, Dance for Two was published in the United Kingdom and a little later in the United States. This proved...