When my Dad left the army, we emigrated from Cardiff to Perth in 1961 and lived there until he got a promotion that saw us arrive in Melbourne in 1965. I have lived here ever since. I have written a memoir about going back to visit all the houses I’ve lived in around the world – it’s called The Address Book and it was published in 2011 by Penguin.

I went Monash Uni in the late '60s with a vague plan of becoming an English teacher. I did graduate with a B.A. in 1972 but never became a teacher. By then I’d become involved with theatre at La Mama and the Pram Factory and singing with bands in the Fitzroy-Carlton circuit. I’ve enjoyed a 5 decade-long showbiz career with highlights and lowlights.

My first crime novel (Half Past Dead) was published in 2002. I’ve published 2 more crime novels, the memoir and I recently finished a new novel and am finishing off a 4th crime one.

I became a marriage celebrant in 2009 and have married more than 300 couples and buried a few people, too. I absolutely love my job.

I have always been supremely happy with the simplicity of Jane. I even like my initials – not only the JC version (with its allusions to Christ, Caesar, potato chips etc.) but also JFC.

I know dozens of other Janes! I even know of 2 other Jane Cliftons. One is a very well-known political journalist in Auckland. A google ‘vanity search’ reveals that we head the listings (down under) – I take credit for all her very clever work . The other is a teacher in a suburb nearby – I know this because scammers tried to inveigle me into some inheritance rip-off, so, I ran a name check and there she was.

I agreed to be part of this project because of vanity, as usual. But it sounded like such a great idea. I love synchronicity – the random connection between events and people and things – and a name seemed like a great place to start.

I'm not plain Jane ... I'm simply Jane.