Marilyn Taylor was born and educated in England, and has an economics degree from London University. She was a school librarian in a Dublin secondary school for 16 years and a college librarian.
Her first novels for young adults were the Jackie and Kev trilogy, Could This Be Love, I Wondered? (1994), Could I Love a Stranger? and Call Yourself a Friend?.
Faraway Home was a new departure for Marilyn, having a strong historical basis and being set in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. It won the prestigious Bisto Book of the Year Award and was followed by 17 Martin Street, set in Dublin during The Emergency (as the Second World War was knows in Ireland). Both have been hugely popular with schools throughout Ireland and beyond.
