In retirement, Grieve authored two books offering tips for school-leaving girls and co-ran a Pâté making company.
She was the youngest daughter and the second child of the fundholder Robert Grieve and the nurse Annie Craig, née Stark.
[1] Grieve spent most of her childhood bedridden due to illness, and was home-schooled until the age of 16, when she briefly attended a small Glasgow daily school,[1][2] and then in Edinburgh.
[3] Grieve authored the fictional book Without Alphonse: The Diary of a Frenchwomen in Scotland under the pseudonym "Ursula Mary Lyon" in 1935.
[3] Grieve's success as editor of Woman magazine was based on how she understood her audience and scarcely featured the wealthy and well-known figures since their community was different to others and inaccessible at the time.
Grieve sought to reach as many women across the United Kingdom as possible and encouraged reader participation by letter or telephone.
[2] Following the purchase of Odhams Press by Daily Mirror Group for £38 million in 1961, Grieve made the decision to retire early in December 1962.