Born in Lanarkshire and educated at Glasgow University, Marion Lochhead worked as a freelance journalist and writer, she contributed to many journals including the Glasgow Herald and the Scotsman, and has given talks and interviews on BBC Scotland. She is the author of several books on Celtic legends and Scottish history. Her works span historiography and biography, poetry and fiction, children's writing, journalism, and broadcasting. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she lived in Edinburgh.