Where Are They Now?
Gina Wilson (née Jones) Class of '61

Gina’s Mother dreamt she would become a top secretary to an eminent business man who would fall in love her, and marry her! To that end, the first schools she attended laid more than usual emphasis on deportment, etiquette and manners.

When Gina was 12, her Mother changed her mind and entered Gina for MHSG, with its more rounded curriculum.

After six years of full and varied school life, with inspirational teaching  from Miss Stone (English) and Miss Bedson (French), Gina went on to Edinburgh University (Hons. English Literature and Language), and on to Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, (Postgraduate, English Literature). While at Mount Holyoke, she worked as a trainee journalist, covering events on campus for two local newspapers. It was the time of the Vietnam War and many students were protesting.

Gina returned to Britain and moved to Edinburgh where for the next seven years she held the post of Assistant Editor on The Scottish National Dictionary. Towards the end of this time, she married an English Lecturer. They had their first child and Gina stopped working to look after her, which provided an opportunity to turn to writing, Gina’s chief love.

Her first of seven young-adult novels with Faber was published in 1980. She expanded into picture-book texts, and poetry for both children and adults. Along the way, Gina was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal, The Kurt Maschler Award, and The Smarties Prize. Gina also won the Frogmore Poetry Prize in 1997.

In 1986, she began the long training that resulted in her setting up as a psychotherapist in private practice in 1995. This deeply fascinating and fulfilling occupation now takes up the greater part of Gina’s working week, but she reserves sacrosanct writing-time to continue publishing children’s texts, and poetry for all ages.