Goldie Alexander's parents migrated from Poland in the late 1920s, and when Goldie was small, she hardly spoke any English. She was educated at Presentation Convent, Windsor and MacRobertson Girls' High School before going on to Melbourne University to study for an Arts degree. Before completing it, however, she married and went to live in England, and later Newcastle and Perth, only returning to Melbourne some twelve years later.
Alexander was a high school teacher for 25 years, teaching English and history before becoming a full-time writer. Her first four books were Dolly Fiction novels for young adults published under the pseudonym 'Gerri Lapin'. She has since also written under her own name for adults and for children and has co-written two plays with Hazel Edwards (q.v.). Alexander also co-wrote The Business of Writing for Young People (1998) with Edwards, and has published teacher resource material. She has written a number of school readers and non-fiction works published by Macmillan Education. In 2010 Alexander wrote Mentoring Your Memoir, a guide to recording your life story.