Born Jennifer Beatrice Fulcher in Norton Subcourse, a small village in Norfolk, on 5 January 1940, her father was employed as a bricklayer and her mother was a school teacher.
[2] She then attended Sir John Leman Grammar School, again in Beccles, where she went on to secure a place at St Anne's College, Oxford to further her education,[2] studying English and Anglo-Saxon Languages.
[2] A compendium of adapted British medieval stories together with tales from the same era translated from French, Dr Jessie Roderick, the University of Maryland's assistant Professor of Education, felt it would give children in Upper Elementary Schools a good foundation in the topic.
[3] Writing in The Observer literary critic Naomi Lewis describes Westwood's next book, Gilgamesh and Other Babylonian Tales, also published in 1968, as providing an "informing scholarly commentary".
[3] Her 1985 book Albion: Guide to Legendary Britain was described by folklorist Jacqueline Simpson as the "first to tackle a representative cross-section [of legends] and offer a full, scholarly analysis of their sources and affiliations.
[8] Juliette Wood, an academic[9][10] and fellow folklorist,[11] highlighted the sound research undertaken and considered the guides provided a happy medium by appealing to readers with a general interest in folklore as well as those seeking a more scholastic approach.