Davies was born in London to Anglo-Welsh parents,[3] and was educated at Bromley High School and Wadham College, Oxford, where she was among the first intake of women students, graduating in French and German in 1974.
[4] In 2012-2016 she held a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at King's College London.
The Times Literary Supplement, in a review of Davies' poem "The Ophthalmologist", writes "we might read this whole piece as an extended metaphor for the agony and ecstasy intrinsic to every creative act.
"[8] A Contemporary Poetry Review review of New British Poetry discussing poet omissions from the collection writes "I, for one, particularly regret the neglect of the underrated Hilary Davies, whose first book, The Shanghai Owner of the Bonsai Shop ... contains some of the most luminous and quietly compelling poems you’ll come across on either side of the Atlantic.
"[9] In a Valley of This Restless Mind has been called "a collection of high seriousness" and compared to the poetry of Elizabeth Jennings.