Jennifer Daiches, daughter of the Scottish critic and biographer David Daiches, was born in Chicago, educated in the US and in England, before moving to Scotland in 1971.
From 1978 to 2001 she worked at the National Museums of Scotland in various capacities, including Head of Publications and script co-ordinator for exhibitions. She is a freelance writer and lecturer, writing on literary and historical subjects as Jenni Calder (having been married to the poet Angus Calder until 1982) and fiction and poetry as Jenni Daiches. An area of special interest has been Scottish emigration, particularly to North America, and questions of identity. Other key interests include Scottish literature and women writers.
Jenni Daiches’ published poetry includes Mediterranean (Scottish Cultural Press, 1995) and Smoke (Kettillonia, 2005). She wrote a biography on the Scottish writer and poet, Naomi Mitchison, which was published by Virago in 1997; she is the author or editor of many works on Robert Louis Stevenson, and has edited his poetry and stories.