Elisabeth Kyle was born Agnes Mary Robertson Dunlop in Ayr, Scotland, to James and Elizabeth Riddle Dunlop.

Her father was a lawyer who worked for the family law firm, but he preferred literature to legal pursuits. He often paraphrased the classics for his daughter while suppressing those books that he felt were either poorly written or undesirable for children. Although he died when she was only nine, Kyle's father undoubtedly influenced her later life. Kyle revealed that she often told stories just to pass the time, but as a child had no real desire to become a writer. When an editor friend encouraged her to try, she began writing children's stories for annuals, which is, ironically, how Charles Dickens began his writing career.

According to Kyle, however, she was sidetracked when she became a journalist for the Manchester Guardian and the Glasgow Herald. She...