She was born in a workhouse in Inverness, to a mother who had turned to prostitution after being disowned by her family, and brought up in Elgin until the age of eight.
[2] While in domestic service she suffered a breakdown and was admitted to the Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen for a year.
[1] She and her husband were farm workers in North East Scotland from 1939 to 1951; writing from this period illustrates her abiding love of nature and immersion in the changing seasons.
[3] Encounters with Nan Shepherd and then Neil M. Gunn opened opportunities in writing, including plays for the BBC in Aberdeen.
[5] Her writings include The White Bird Passes (1958), filmed for BBC Television in 1980 and adapted by Anne Downie for a 1988 Tron Theatre stage production,[6] Glitter of Mica (1963), Another Time, Another Place (1983), which became an award-winning film, and Where the Apple Ripens (1985).