Age: (in 1977): 18.

Home: A bedsit in London.

Family: Born in Blackwood, South Wales.

Appearance: Black curly hair, tall, attractive, dresses in punk clothes.

Interests: art. In 1977 she is attending Goldsmiths college as an art student.

Jax is a chaotic whirlwind. She has a strong Welsh accent.

Jax is a combination of two women. During my brief time as a tax officer, this wild and beautiful Welsh girl sat opposite me. I was a pretty innocent 18-year old and she (I think her name was Suzanne) totally bewitched me.

Thirty years later I taught a young woman, whose name was (and is) Jax, at the Webber Douglas Academy.

Both these women were sparky, positive, witty and life affirming. Neither displayed the darker characteristics that become apparent later in the novel.