Ann Timoney Jenkin's father, James Alexander Timoney, came from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and Timoney Jenkin says she is very conscious of her kinship with her Irish relatives. She grew up in wartime London, as her parents decided not to sent her away to the country during the bombing. After leaving school she had various jobs, eventually working for the Medical Research Council in London and studying science at evening classes at Birbeck College, University of London. Although she did not continue in the field of science, she felt that this training was significant in making her meticulous, with an eye to getting the detail right.
It was during this time that she met her scientist husband. They were married in 1955 and had two sons and a daughter, moving to Adelaide from London in 1960. In the 1970s she taught the recorder at schools. When her son, who later became a professional clarinettist, learnt music, she learnt with him, studying at the University of Adelaide. It was during this time that she developed the musical ear which she believed was necessary for a poet.
Timoney Jenkin was divorced in 1981. Although she had done some writing as a teenager, she had not written anything but letters during the years of her marriage. When her marriage broke down, she began writing poetry. One of her first poems was 'After the Divorce'. Encouraged by Geoffrey Dutton (q.v.), she had some poems published in The
Bulletin and, by 1991, was a full-time writer. She was awarded a South Australian Department for the Arts Writers' Grant in 1991, and was Convener of Friendly Street Poets 1988-1992. She was a regular reader of fiction and poetry on the ABC and also read on Radio 5UV.
Timoney Jenkin's wartime experiences had had a stronger effect on her than she had realised at the time, and, in 1995, urged by her granddaughter, she wrote a series of eight vignettes on her wartime childhood. She read these on Radio 5CK.
Timoney Jenkin has run poetry workshops in schools, and has put together two books of children's poetry for use in schools. As a professional storyteller she has been involved in the Come Out Youth Arts Program, and she has also worked in libraries and schools.
