She is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, Hylands School and a boarding school for eighteen months.
During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War.
She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the University of East London from 1992-1995.

Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries.
Her next three novels - Bright Young Things (2001), Going Out (2002), and PopCo (2004) - took her away from genre fiction, and she used them to "explore what it means to be trapped in a culture where your identity is defined by pop culture."

Her next novel, 2006's The End of Mr. Y brought her a new level of success, and was sold in 22 countries.
She followed this 4 years later with Our Tragic Universe, originally to be titled Death of the Author.
In writing her ninth novel, The Seed Collectors, her research included studying towards an MSc in ethnobotany.

Recently, she started writing children's fiction, publishing Dragon's Green in 2017, the first in the Worldquake series.
It was followed by The Chosen Ones in 2018 and Galloglass in 2019.
She wrote about her experiences of writing children's fiction, including how much she enjoyed the worldbuilding.

Away from writing fiction, she has taught Creative Writing at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London
.
She reviews books for the Literary Review, the Independent on Sunday, and Scotland on Sunday.
She has also served as a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008) jury, along with Director Iain Softley and presided over by actor Danny Huston
She has stated previously was working on a book called 41-0 about her year of returning to tennis - she had stopped playing when she was 14 but took it up again in 2013 to see "how high [she] could get in the rankings for [her] age."
She placed in the Wimbledon Seniors in 2014.
She channelled her athletic ability into running and walking, and tracked it via numerous apps, leading to a realisation she had been acting obsessively about her fitness, which she chronicled in The Guardian in 2015 and was followed by, in her words, a breakdown.

She shares with Ariel, the protagonist in The End of Mr. Y, a wish to know everything:
"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers.
I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God?
But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."
She is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, Hylands School and a boarding school for eighteen months. During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War. She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the University of East London from 1992-1995.
Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Her next three novels - Bright Young Things (2001), Going Out (2002), and PopCo (2004) - took her away from genre fiction, and she used them to "explore what it means to be trapped in a culture where your identity is defined by pop culture."
Her next novel, 2006's The End of Mr. Y brought her a new level of success, and was sold in 22 countries. She followed this 4 years later with Our Tragic Universe, originally to be titled Death of the Author. In writing her ninth novel, The Seed Collectors, her research included studying towards an MSc in ethnobotany.
Recently, she started writing children's fiction, publishing Dragon's Green in 2017, the first in the Worldquake series. It was followed by The Chosen Ones in 2018 and Galloglass in 2019. She wrote about her experiences of writing children's fiction, including how much she enjoyed the worldbuilding. 
Away from writing fiction, she has taught Creative Writing at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London
. She reviews books for the Literary Review, the Independent on Sunday, and Scotland on Sunday. She has also served as a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008) jury, along with Director Iain Softley and presided over by actor Danny Huston
She has stated previously was working on a book called 41-0 about her year of returning to tennis - she had stopped playing when she was 14 but took it up again in 2013 to see "how high [she] could get in the rankings for [her] age." She placed in the Wimbledon Seniors in 2014. She channelled her athletic ability into running and walking, and tracked it via numerous apps, leading to a realisation she had been acting obsessively about her fitness, which she chronicled in The Guardian in 2015 and was followed by, in her words, a breakdown. 
She shares with Ariel, the protagonist in The End of Mr. Y, a wish to know everything:
"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."
Scarlett Thomas