Celia Margaret Fremlin was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England, the sister of nuclear physicist, John H. Fremlin. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; Gollier died in 1968. In 1985, Fremlin married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Fremlin's many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960. Fremlin now lives in Bristol.