Lyn Newman (nee Irvine) was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and grew up in Aberdeen. She graduated from Aberdeen University with first class honours in English Literature and came to Girton as a research student 1924-27. Her subject of study was 'The literary criticism of the Bible' and she received a research scholarship from the Carnegie Trust in 1926. After Cambridge she went to work as a literary journalist in London, contributing to Nation, Spectator, Listener and Observer. She also wrote four books. In 1934 she married Max Newman, a mathematician and they had two sons. She lived in Comberton, near Cambridge and in 2001 was the subject of an exhibition, 'Lyn Newman: a Cambridgeshire Writer' at Cambridge Central Library.