Mary Renault was educated at Clifton High School, Bristol, and St Hugh's College, Oxford. Having completed her nursing training in 1937, she returned to nursing in 1939 until the end if the war. In 1948 she went to live in South Africa.
One of Mary Renault's most celebrated works is her Alexander trilogy, also published in Penguin, which comprises Fire from Heaven (which received the Silver Pen Award in 1971), The Persian Boy and Funeral Games. Her other books include Purposes of Love, Kind Are Her Answers, The Friendly Young Ladies, Return to Night, North Face, The Charioteer, The Last of the Wine, The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea, The Lion in the Gateway (for children), The Mask of Apollo, The Nature of Alexander and The Praise Singer. Many of her books have been published in Penguin. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1959. Mary Renault died on 13 December 1983.