As Joan M. Godwin, she was born at Sudbury, Suffolk in 1930, daughter of Frederick Godwin (1902-1980) and his wife Hilda E. née Cutmore (1903-1955), who married at Sudbury in 1929. Joan married at Sudbury in 1960, Henry A. Coules and worked under the name of J. Coules. A member and exhibitor at the Beccles Society of Artists 1977-1990, from Cherry Tree Farm, Ilketshall St Lawrence, Beccles, Suffolk. Their son Jonathan A Coules, who was born at Bedford in 1962, is an artist in wood.