Virginia Wilde studied aeronautics at Bangor and Stockholm universities, as well as briefly training as an acrobat. She has had a number of jobs, including working as a theatre critic, a sommelier and a sheep farmer. She divides her time between the south of France and her home in the Trossachs, Scotland, where she owns a small distillery. She lives with Mike, her Irish wolfhound, and one of her ex-husbands.