Polly Samson was born in London in 1962. At the time her father was diplomatic correspondent for the Daily Worker. Her mother, Esther Cheo Ying, wrote Black Country Girl in Red China, an autobiographical account of her time as a Major in Mao’s Army.

She began writing from an early age, ‘I was a very solitary child, always writing stories and poems. I recently found some poems I had written for my grandmother when I was about seven. They’re all about people hiding behind bedroom doors with cloaks and knives.’

In the seventies the family moved first to Cornwall, then Devon, where Polly was eventually expelled from the sixth form of Newton Abbot Grammar School. She subsequently returned to London to work in publishing. At the age of twenty-four she was appointed Publicity Director of Jonathan Cape. In 1988 she met the writer Heathcote Williams and they had a son, Charlie, and moved to Cornwall.

She started a new career in journalism writing features for the Observer and the Sunday Times as well as weekly book reviews for the Daily Mail. For more than two years she wrote a weekly column for the Sunday Times style section. Her writing has also appeared in, amongst others, the Guardian, Harpers Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Tatler, the Daily Telegraph, Punch, the Sunday Times and Observer Magazine.

In 1993 she co-wrote, with David Gilmour, the lyrics to seven tracks on Pink Floyd’s album, The Division Bell.

Polly and David married in 1994 and live in West Sussex. Their sons Joe and Gabriel were born in 1995 and 1997.

Polly’s collection of short stories, Lying in Bed, was published by Virago in April 1999. Her first novel, Out of the Picture, was first published by Virago in April 2000. It came about because "I have a child who doesn't know his father, and I wondered what it must be like for him growing up in a busy, happy family, but not knowing his real dad. I have a lot of love invested in him, and I have experienced some other complicated family arrangements, so the subject really fascinates me."