Born in Australia, Barbara Toner grew up in Chatswood, Sydney. She has lived for many years in London and also spent time on the far south coast of New South Wales.
Toner started out in journalism, writing for the Sun and Pix magazine. At the age of nineteen she headed for Fleet Street. She acquired a reputation as a well known columnist in England, writing 'Tales from Tessa Wood' in Woman magazine and going on to write for The Times. She has produced a weekly column for You magazine in the Mail on Sunday and has also written for film and television. Her column in The Guardian is a wry look at world events from an everyday beleaguered London household. Toner also published Double Shift: A Practical Guide for Working Mothers (1975), The Facts of Rape (1977), A Mother's Guide to Life (1997) and A Mother's Guide to Husbands (1998).
(Source: Stephen Alomes When London Calls : The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists to Britain (1999): 199-205).
