Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series,
vol. 135, pages 306-308. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale,
2005.
She never married but had a 13-year relationship with the journalist Nell McCafferty.
She was the second oldest of nine children.
Her father Tómas O'Faolain was an Irish journalist who wrote under the pen name of Terry O'Sullivan.
She studied English at University College, Dublin, and medieval English literature at the University of Hull before earning a postgraduate degree in English from Oxford.