About the Author

Joanna Vale wrote her first poem at the age of seven and has always had an inconvenient urge to write. It was whilst living in Wiltshire, in the town of Bradford on Avon, that she joined a creative writing class under the enabling tutorship of Gill Redman. When the course finished, the class formed themselves into the Bradford and Trowbridge Scribblers. (Aptly named B.A.T.S.) With the support and motivation of this gallant company, she continued writing and in 1994, met Tina Tourin who was teaching harp at a school in Bradford on Avon.

The following year when Tina returned to England, they went off one day to hunt crop circles around the impressive stone circle of Avebury. There was a strong wind blowing and Tina was carrying one of the small harps she uses for her Harp Therapy. (See website www.HarpRealm.com) As they came close to Silbury Hill, the wind began to reverberate strongly through the strings and Tina began to compose a theme tune for a Unicorn. The name ‘Jessiebelle’ came to her then as if the Unicorn herself had trotted out of the mound and into her mind (Find out how the unicorn got her name). There are times when you cannot but respond to the magick of a place and as they sat by the sun-drenched mound, both Jo and Tina, felt that this was a special moment.

Jo was already in the process of writing a short story for one of Tina’s harp tutors, which incidentally, are probably the most fun books on the market for youngsters learning the instrument. So later, Tina entrusted Jo with the creation of a story to be narrated with harp. This was duly written and had somewhere in the region of 12,000 words. Just right for two CD’s. It was at this point that Jo decided to rewrite the story!

All went well until the story began to write itself. Jo blames Tina for this because she has the knack of getting people to unlock their creativity. Perhaps part of the reason too, is that the harp really IS something of a magickal instrument. It resounds with the full range of the musical spectrum and has the power to reach those parts that other instruments cannot. When she plays, Tina makes it look as easy as breathing, but as a second generation harpist who has trained in Paris and Vienna, she has an extraordinary perception which makes her aware of the kinds of music, modes and major and minor keys to which people respond from the very depths of their being. She composes as well as she cooks and is a master of improvisation, something which she teaches to other harpists.

In due course, the story was finished but was far too long for a CD, so Jo wrote a prequel to it. This was Jessiebelle’s Dream because Tina wanted a story written from the point of view of the Unicorn. They recorded this together in San Diego in December 2002.

Jo now lives in North Oxfordshire near the Rollright Stone circle, with her husband, two of her sons and two cats, Lucy and Hermione.