As an actor, she worked with Alan Ayckbourn, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and briefly played Elsie Duckworth in Coronation Street.
[7] Evacuated during World War II, they ended up in the house in the Lake District which inspired Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome's classic children's book.
She played the intense central character Susan, a parson's wife with an active fantasy life, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
[10][16] On screen, Jones played Isabella in Ever After (a 1998 adaptation of Cinderella with Drew Barrymore), and Rebecca in the 1999 British mystery film Simon Magus.
[17] She briefly played Elsie Duckworth in the long running soap Coronation Street, Mrs Cutter in the 2003 TV adaptation of Lucky Jim, and appeared in episodes of The Bill and Sense8.
[2] The third and last book in the series The Witch's Children Go To School won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2008—the first year the award ran.
[24] Jones wrote two more fairytale picture book retellings with different illustrators—Cinderella with Jessica Courtney-Tickle in 2018, and The Sleeping Beauty with Paola Escobar in 2021.
She has also written novels for older children, including Dear Clare, My Ex Best Friend, The Lost King and The Youngstars, about a troupe of teenage performers.