Education at a convent school was followed by an undergraduate degree in European history of ideas at the University of Sussex.
She has written for younger readers since 1980 under the pseudonym Ann Halam and, under that name, has published more than twenty novels.
In 1984 Divine Endurance, a science fiction novel for adults, was published under her own name and in which she created the term gynoid.
Jones' works are mostly science fiction and near future high fantasy with strong themes of gender and feminism.
She is generally well-reviewed critically and, as a feminist science fiction writer, is often compared to Ursula K. Le Guin, though the two authors are very much distinct in both content and style of work.