Marianne Macdonald read English at New College, Oxford where she worked on Isis, edited the university magazine Twist and was named Guardian/NUS Student Journalist of the Year.

She was the Independent’s first trainee. She went on to become an interviewer on the Independent on Sunday Review and then at the Observer Life magazine. In 1997 she was runner up for Interviewer of the Year.

Since 2003 she has freelanced as a writer and interviewer for the Times, Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Evening Standard (particularly ES magazine), Guardian, Observer, The Spectator and Marie Claire.