A native of Windsor, Berkshire, Jenny Scott had an adventurous childhood, travelling through West Africa and Australia due to her father's career as an engineer. She studied at a convent before graduating with a degree in economicsfrom King's College, Cambridge. She subsequently worked for two years as an economist at the Bank of England, before joining Reuters in 1994. She wrote primarily in her field of expertise on economic affairs, but also spent a year in Amsterdam as a general news correspondent. She then returned to London to write the book The Living Economy.