[2] Varnham was raised in Paekākāriki until she was 8 years old, when her family moved to Wellington.
She studied a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English and political science at the University of Otago, graduating in 1969.
[4][5] From 1972 to 1978, she lived in New York City, where she worked as a writer, public relations consultant, and book publicist at Simon & Schuster.
[2] After returning to New Zealand, she worked at National Business Review and Network Communications.
[6] In 2003, Varnham established Awa Press, a publishing company focusing on non-fiction works by New Zealand and overseas writers.