[2][3] She left school at age 16 in order to paint and to study art in both France and Italy.
At 18 she travelled, mostly alone, across the United States before returning to England to work on a variety of newspapers and magazines.
She married the journalist and travel writer Quentin Crewe in 1961 and with him had a daughter, Candida; they eventually divorced.
She also writes plays for radio, television and stage, and is a freelance journalist, critic and broadcaster.
Her play The Understanding ran at the Strand Theatre in 1982 and starred Ralph Richardson and Joan Greenwood.