Haggard wrote the book in 1885, primarily in his chambers where he was working as a barrister.H Rider Haggard, The Days of My Life Chapter 10 accessed 21 December 2013 King Solomon's Mines had been an enormous success but Haggard says he had been "somewhat piqued by the frequent descriptions of myself as 'a mere writer of romances and boys’ books'".H. Rider Haggard, The Days of My Life, Chapter 11 accessed 21 December 2013 The book is named after Jess, one of the two orphaned nieces of a farmer in the Transvaal.
