Laurel Ward was born on a farm at Tammin, and moved to Perth with her family when she was four years old. She was educated at Highgate School in North Perth, and Perth Girls School in James Street until the age of fourteen, after which she began studying music in Leederville for the next four years. Ward taught piano and worked for a florist, but started developing her interest in writing.
In 1939 she married, and subsequently took a journalism course, following which she worked on the staff of The Farmer's Weekly for ten years. During that time she wrote about fashion and covered events such as agricultural shows, as well as writing a children's page entitled 'Cousin Anne'. Ward also did freelance work for other periodicals and newspapers, and became a member of the Australian Journalists' Association.
After her husband's death, Ward travelled to Europe, after which she returned to Perth and began work for the Leederville Star, and later, the Subiaco Post. Her series of books for children - beginning with You Can't See Round Corners (1994) - are fictional tales based on events in the Goldfields around Kalgoorlie, as told to Ward by people who spent their childhood there.
