Pooley was educated at Roedean School[1] and Newnham College, Cambridge,[2] from which she graduated with a degree in Economics.
Pooley first pursued a career in advertising at J. Walter Thompson, in due course becoming a Managing Partner and Group Head, before leaving the work-place on the birth of her third child.
[3] In 2015, Pooley began a blog, Mummy was a Secret Drinker, about her life following a resolution to give up alcohol.
[4] Pooley's first book, The Sober Diaries, was a narrative of her first year of sobriety and also included an account of her successful battle to overcome breast cancer.
Pooley's second novel, titled The People on Platform 5 in the UK, and Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting in the USA, was published in 2022, and her third – How to Age Disgracefully – in spring 2024.