Born in Yorkshire, Jill Dobson grew up in country Australia and now lives in Glasgow, after stints in Melbourne, London, Moscow, Edinburgh and Tokyo. The Inheritors, her first novel, was written during her last years of school. It was originally published by the University of Queensland Press in 1988, followed by Time To Go (1991) and A Journey to Distant Mountains (2001). A new edition of The Inheritors, rewritten for the twenty-first century and released in January 2024, is her first venture into indie publishing.

As well as speculative fiction, Jill writes contemporary, historical and fantasy fiction.