Joanna was born in a Leicester of working class parents who were keenly intelligent and supportive and loving throughout her childhood. Unfortunately, she was born with a dislocation of the hip joint, which meant she spent a great deal of early childhood in and out of hospitals. However, they did have a hospital school and she learned to read early, so that she was devouring Dickens, Dumas, and Sabatini at seven and attempting to scribble stories (novels even) at about 11 years old.