Ophelia Field was born to American parents in Australia in 1971. She read English at Christ Church, Oxford, and gained a Master's in Development Studies at the London School of Economics. She subsequently worked as a policy analyst for several refugee and human rights organizations. Until 2008, she was Director of the Writers in Prison Programme of English PEN. Her first book, The Favourite, was published to wide acclaim in 2002, followed by The Kit-Kat Club in 2008.