Pauline Sara Jo Moyes, known professionally as Jojo Moyes, was born on 4 August 1969 in Maidstone, Kent, England, UK, but grew up in London. She was the only child of Elizabeth J. McKee and James C. Moyes. She studied at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Bedford New College, London University. She currently resides on a farmhouse in Great Sampford, Essex with her husband, journalist Charles Arthur, and their three children.

After a varied career, including roles as a minicab controller, a typer of braille statements for blind people for NatWest, and a brochure writer for Club 18-30, Moyes pursued a degree at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London University. In 1992, she won a bursary financed by The Independent newspaper to attend the postgraduate newspaper journalism course at City University. Apart from 1994, when she worked in Hong Kong for the Sunday Morning Post, she spent ten years at The Independent, including stints as Assistant News Editor and Arts and Media Correspondent.

In 2002, Moyes became a full-time novelist when her first book, Sheltering Rain, was published. She is one of the few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Her works have been translated into over twenty-eight languages and have sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making her a #1 New York Times best-selling author and screenwriter.