She then quit her job to pursue a Masters' in Writing for Children at Winchester University, which she received in 2002.
Jill Marshall migrated from the United Kingdom to New Zealand in 2003, where she ran a manuscript assessment service called Write Good Stuff.
In 2011, Marshall published and promoted the picture book Curly from Shirley: The Christchurch Dog from which a percentage of the profits were to go to New Zealand Red Cross charity in the wake of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake,[2] which also led to the formation of her publishing company Pear Jam Books.
[3] Following these efforts she was named by New Zealand's Next Magazine as its Woman of the Year 2011 in arts and culture for her contribution to the local literary scene.
Marshall left New Zealand and returned to the United Kingdom in December 2012, later closing Pear Jam Books and leaving multiple publishing contracts with local authors in limbo.