[2] Born in Young, New South Wales, she is one of six children, the sister of former ABC TV Washington Correspondent Michael Gleeson, and the mother of Home and Away actress Jessica Tovey and Sydney Morning Herald journalist Josephine Tovey.
Her sister, Margie Gleeson, works as the head teacher of Creative and Performing Arts at Albury High School.
In the mid-1970s she lived for five years in Italy where she taught English and then London, where she began to write her first novel, Eleanor Elizabeth.
She's also written scripts for the ABC's Bananas in Pyjamas and Magic Mountain.
She is married to scientist Euan Tovey, has three adult daughters and lives in Sydney's inner west.