Songfacts®:

• Beverley started this song in 1974 with the late Nick Drake when she and her husband John Martyn were living in Hampstead. She recalled to Uncut magazine: "Nick lived one-stop down the tube line, he would come and babysit sometimes. We started writing 'Reckless Jane' one day as a bit of a joke. I had the guitar and he was sitting on the floor, trying to look small and not being away, as usual!"
  
  Beverley decided to complete the song in 2013 for the release of her The Phoenix & The Turtle album. "I couldn't look at it for long time after he died, but finally I decided to finish it," she said. "It's a pastoral English thing."
• The song's character Jane is partly based on Beverley and other female 'muses,' two of whom were called Jane. "The song came out of a bit of fun," she told The Independent. "We tried to think of all the things we could rhyme with Jane, but 'hear her laughing like a drain' didn't make the cut!"