She had an unhappy childhood in a strict Lutheran family, something depicted in her brother Ingmar Bergman's semi-autobiographical film Fanny och Alexander.

[3] Her father Erik Bergman, a Lutheran priest, was extremely strict, and forced Margareta and her brothers to attend all of his Sunday church services.

[4] Ingmar Bergman's most personal feature film, that he had intended to be his last, was the somewhat autobiographical Fanny and Alexander, based on his and Margareta's unhappy childhood.

Margareta Bergman was married to the English author and broadcaster Paul Britten Austin from 1951 until his death in 2005.

The review concludes "Bergman's prose carefully circles, rather than describes, the unspeakable, resulting in an austere work of art softened by a uniquely modern wisdom.