She was educated at Blackpool Collegiate School for Girls between 1945 and 1953 and then read medieval and modern languages (French and German) at Girton College, Cambridge.
[3] In 1956, she worked as a reporter and feature writer for the Lancashire Evening Post, before moving into the advertising industry with Young & Rubicam, Mather & Crowther and Colman, Prentis and Varley.
[3] Appointed by Sir William Haley, she joined The Times in 1966 and was the first to edit the newly conceived Women's Page.
Her tenure oversaw a 30% increase in readership for the paper[4] and the New Statesman described the page as "currently the best thing in British journalism".
[4] She left The Times in 1969,[4] after nearly four years at the paper, and became involved with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham.