Jean Margaret (Peggy) Wemyss was born in Neepawa, Manitoba on July 18, 1926 to Robert Harrison Wemyss, a lawyer, and his wife Verna Jean, nee Simpson. Verna died when Peggy was 4 years old, and Robert later married her sister, Margaret Campbell Simpson, a teacher and later a librarian, who was throughout the years one of Peggy's "greatest encouragers." After Robert Wemyss' death, when Peggy was 9 and her brother still a baby, the family went to live with Grandfather Simpson in his big brick house on First Avenue. In a letter written by Margaret, she stated "I was an extremely fortunate child. As someone who has always been interested in reading and in writing (which I began to do in about Grade 2 or 3), I always had someone there who encouraged me." That encouragement was Ms. Musgrove, her high school English teacher. Peggy wrote for and was an editor of the Black and Gold, the Neepawa Collegiate paper. When she was in Grades Eleven and Twelve, she had several articles published in the Neepawa Press.

After graduating from high school in 1944, Margaret attended United College, (now the University of Winnipeg), and was assistant editor of the college paper, Vox.

Jean Margaret Wemyss graduated from United College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947, and married John Fergus Laurence on September 13, 1947, in the Neepawa United Church. She then worked for a time as a reporter for the Winnipeg Citizen.

In 1950, after living a short time in England, Margaret and her husband, a civil engineer, moved to British Somali land. While there, she wrote a translation of Somali prose and poetry, A Tree for Poverty. Laurence said that it was at that time that she "began seriously to write." A travel book, The Prophet's Camel Bell, written some years later describes the Laurences' experience in Somali land.

They moved to Accra, Ghana in 1952, with their 2 month old daughter, Jocelyn, who was born in England. During their subsequent 5 years in Africa Margaret produced her first novel, This Side Jordan, which won the 1961 Beta Sigma Phi Award for the best first novel by a Canadian. A collection of short stories, The Tomorrow Tamer, written a few years later, is also set in West Africa. Out of her African years came an interest in contemporary literature by Africans, which resulted in her study of Nigerian fiction and drama. The Laurences' son, David, was born in Ghana in 1955.

After leaving Africa, the family lived for five years in Vancouver, and during this time Margaret wrote The Christmas Birthday Story, a children's book later rewritten.

After Vancouver, there followed seven years in England and the purchase of her home, Elm Cottage, in Penn, Buckinghamshire, 30 miles from London. In the ten year period 1964 - 1974 the Manawaka books were published.

Margaret Laurence received honorary degrees from more than a dozen Canadian universities, was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971, and had numerous other honors bestowed upon her.

An hour- long documentary film, Margaret Laurence - First Lady of Manawaka was produced by the National Film Board of Canada and premiered in Winnipeg on May 7, 1979. Adaptations of many of her works have been made for radio, television and stage. Her books and other writings have been translated into several languages and receive attention and praise from many countries.

She served as Writer in Residence at the Universities of Toronto and Western Ontario and Trent University, and was appointed Chancellor of Trent for the years 1981 - 1983.

While still living in England, Margaret established a summer home on the Otonobee River in southern Ontario, which she named Manawaka Cottage. Her return to Canada became permanent in 1973, and she made her home in Lakefield, Ontario. But, despite her years away from her birthplace, Margaret Laurence continued to consider herself "...a Prairie person, because I have always remained deeply just that."

The last decade of her life focused on promoting causes she passionately supported - peace, social justice, the equality of women, environmental protection - through letters, lectures, essays and fundraising campaigns.

Margaret Laurence died on January 5, 1987 and at her request her ashes were brought by her children, Jocelyn and David, to be interred in Riverside Cemetery, Neepawa, on June 23, the day before the official opening of the Margaret laurence Home, the former Simpson house where she had lived in her youth.