Before embarking on her writing career she worked as a musician, and as a technical writer and information management specialist in the IT industry.
Following doctoral research in Modern History at Oxford University, Buckley wrote her first scholarly biography, about Queen Christina.
[1] Buckley's second book, Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, was published by Bloomsbury in July 2008.
It is a biography of Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, who rose from the humblest of beginnings to become the morganatic wife of the Sun King, and highly influential at his Court.
The book went on to win a broadly positive critical reception though Buckley was criticised by some reviewers for her interpretation of her subject's religious views.