Barbara Constance Freeman was born on 29 November 1906 in Ealing, near London. She attended the Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey and later studied at the Kingston School of Art. She illustrated many books by other writers, including The Treasure Hunters by Enid Blyton, and many collections of fairy tales, both traditional tales by Grimm and Andersen and modern stories. Some of her earliest illustrations are found in The Cuckoo Book (1942), a book of fairy tales by Edith Mary Bell. She also contributed to comics, including Playhour, and to annuals, such as, Blackie's Children's Annual 1934.