[7] Growing up, Maitland developed a wild reputation: in 1966 she scandalised one of her brothers by winning a foot race in a very short cotton dress.
[11] During her college years, Maitland was taken to a mental hospital on several occasions for this reason,[11] but she completed her course and started writing.
[13] Since her son left college, Maitland has moved towards a solitary and prayerful life[14] in a variety of locations, first of all on the Isle of Skye and ultimately in her present house in Galloway.
She says that she wants to avoid most of the comforts of life, especially those that intrude into her quest for silence such as mobile phones, radio, television and even her son.
Maitland's 2003 collection of short stories, On Becoming a Fairy Godmother, is a fictional celebration of the menopausal woman, while the title story of 2008's Far North was originally published as "True North" in her first collection Telling Tales and was made into a film of the same title in 2007.