Best known as the wife of painter Lucian Freud (1953-58) and poet Robert Lowell (1972-77), she was a successful author in her own right. Her debut novel, The Stepdaughter (1976), won the David Highman Prize. She also had a brief career as an actress; she appeared in several Hollywood films during the 1950s and '60s. During her early adulthood years, she worked briefly as a secretary. She began her literary career as a journalist; in the 1960s, she wrote for such periodicals as The London Magazine and Encounter.
