Daisy Jeanne Sampson was born in St Helens, England, on 30 January 1922, the daughter of Leonard Sampson (1894–1977), a leather factor, and his wife, Emily, née Middlehurst (1894–1984).

Her elder brother was the academic and peace activist Ronald V. Sampson (1918–1999).

She was brought up in the Moss Bank area of St Helens and attended Cowley Girls' School, the local Grammar School.

After graduating from the London School of Economics in 1943, she worked as a civil servant during World War II and subsequently as a publisher's reader for Hamish Hamilton and in the 1960s as a counsellor with the Marriage Guidance Council.

She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1978, together with her husband Norman.