Marie Joseph was born in Lancashire and was educated at Blackburn High School for Girls. Before her marriage she was in the Civil Service. She lived in Middlesex with her husband, a retired chartered Engineer, and had two daughters and eight grandchildren.

Marie Joseph began her writing career as a short-story writer and used her Northern background to enrich her bestselling novels. Down-to-earth characters bring a vivid authenticity to her stories, which were written with both humour and poignancy.

Her novel: A Better World Than This won the 1987 Romantic Novelist's Association Major Award.

She died in 1996.