Jennifer Morag Henderson

Jennifer Morag Henderson is a writer from the Scottish Highlands. Her main interest is in history and biography. Her first book Josephine Tey: A Life is a biography of the Golden Age crime writer, and was a ‘Book of the Year’ in the Observer, Independent and Telegraph, and acclaimed by reviewers in the Wall Street Journal, TLS, Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her second book Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots was longlisted for the prestigious Highland Book Prize. Her short stories and articles have been widely published, and her newest book, the biography in poetry Jofrid Gunn, was published in August 2025.

Jennifer has degrees from the University of Glasgow and Dalhousie University (Canada), and studied French at l’Institut Français d’Écosse and at the Université de Caen. She is currently learning Faroese.

Jennifer’s latest book Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots was published in a new softback edition in 2025 by Whittles Publishing. Daughters of the North was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize, and reviews describe it as ‘Captivating’ (The Herald), ‘deeply researched and detailed’ (Alan Massie in The Scotsman), ‘riveting reading’ (Marie Stuart Society) and ‘utterly absorbing… an essential addition for any individual keen to learn more about this country’s eccentric history’ (Scottish Field).

Jennifer’s first book, the biography Josephine Tey: A Life, was published by Sandstone Press and was listed in the Observer newspaper’s Best Biographies of 2015, the Independent’s Best Crime Books of 2015, and the Telegraph’s list of Best Books of 2016. It was republished in a new edition in 2021 and is currently available from the Sandstone imprint at Vertebrate Publishing.

Jennifer Morag Henderson is the first biographer of novelist and playwright Josephine Tey and has lectured and written extensively about Tey’s life, crime fiction and theatre work, including articles for the BBC and Northwords Now, and talks for Inverness Museum, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library. She was instrumental in getting a blue plaque for Josephine Tey in Tey’s home town of Inverness.

A new book, Jofrid Gunn, a biography in poetry, was published in August 2025 by Shearsman Books.

Jennifer’s other writing and research includes work on 20th-century Scottish writers M.E.M. Donaldson and Hugh MacDiarmid, on the 17th-century adventurer Donald McBane, historic Inverness, and more. She has worked on commission researching and writing for museums and other organisations, and can be contacted to discuss work via the Contact page.

Jennifer’s articles, short stories and poems have been published in magazines and anthologies, including Northwords Now (where she is a Contributing Writer), Riptide (Two Ravens Press), The Dalhousie Review, Causeway/Cabhsair, Gutter, Poetry Scotland, by the BBC, in the Press and Journal, the National and elsewhere. Her work on the fascinating figure of Seignelay Colbert de Castlehill has been published in France, and by academic publisher Palgrave.

As a playwright, her work has been performed for the National Theatre of Scotland’s Five Minute Theatre project, through the Play Pieces lunchtime theatre initiative, and at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.

She edited literary magazine Random Acts of Writing from 2006-2010, and has worked in several different areas of the book trade, including bookselling, libraries and publishing.