Daughter of author Elfreida Read, Jeananne (Jeani) Read was born in Shanghai on February 12, 1947. Her mother was Estonian and her father was English. They moved to Vancouver when she was very young. Jeani Read started writing for The Province newspaper in 1973 and became its first rock music critic. She later became a columnist for The Province, addressing contemporary manners and morality with a cryptic and often witty style. A collection of her columns, Endless Summers and Other Shared Hallucinations (Flight Press), appeared in 1985, prepared for publication by Vancouver editor Nancy Flight. She also collaborated with her husband, the screenwriter and playwright Michael Mercer, on a number of short TV dramas, one of which was nominated for a Gemini award. Towards the end of her 34-year-long career at The Province, her considerable talents were sidelined by stints as a Lifestyles columnist, under headings that included "Bachelor of the Week"; and "Girl Talk."; She died in the palliative care unit at St. Paul's Hospital, of complications arising from esophageal cancer, on December 21, 2007. The grind of journalism never diminished her generous and refined nature, or extinguished her delightful wit.

[BCBW 2007] "Journalism"