Anna Jacobs Bio

Born in 1941 in England, Anna Jacobs is an English-Australian novelist. Graduating from the University of Leeds in 1962 after studying French, Jacobs emigrated to Australia in 1973. She has written and published over 100 novels within the historical saga, familial and relationship genre published under her own name, as well as several fantasy novels published under her pen name, Shannah Jay. 

Initially, Anna Jacobs worked writing French textbooks, however after illness – chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, she had to give up her public service job, and decided to become a full time fiction writer. 

Awards and nominations

Anna Jacobs is a bestselling author and has been shortlisted for several awards over the years. 

In 2006 Pride of Lancashire won the Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award. 

She has also been shortlisted for the Australian Romantic Novel of the Year Award for:

• The Trader’s Wife

• Like No Other

• Our Lizzie

• Tomorrow’s Promises

• Bright Day Dawning

• The Corrigan Legacy

Writing as Shannah Jay

Shannah Jay is Anna Jacobs pen name for fantasy novels. She wrote the Chronicles of Tenebrak series not long after she started getting published, with book 4 shortlisted for Best Australian Fantasy Novel in the late 1990’s. 

Books written as Shannah Jay have been re-published as ebooks via Amazon, including Tenebrak: the Founding which is the same world, just 20,000 years earlier. She also wrote three fantasy standalone novels as Shannah Jay. 

Chronicles of Tenebrak series

1. Tenebrak, the Founding (2010)

2. Quest (1993)

3. Lands of Nowhere (1995)

4. Shadow of the Serpent (1995)

5. The Price of Wisdom (1996)

Standalone Novels

• Envoy (1994)

• Alien Invasions with Kerry Greenwood and Lucy Sussex (2000)

• The Sword of Azaray (2010)