Ruth Morris's father commanded the garrison on Port Phillip, Victoria. She was educated mainly at Korowa Grammar School, Melbourne, and at Melbourne University, and graduated with a BA in 1948. In 1956 she travelled through Queensland in an old Ford, and suffered some of the financial difficulties suffered by Joanne in The Runaway. She moved to Adelaide to find more time for writing, and it was here that she began work on The Runaway.