Buckingham was born in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. In 1949 she married John Sawyer and they had a son and a daughter, David and Helen. For years she worked as a medical social worker and he as a Director of a London advertising firm. The two wrote gothic and romance novels in collaboration beginning in 1967, under her maiden name Nancy Buckingham, and later under the pseudonyms Christina Abbey, Erica Quest, Nancy John and Hilary London. Their last novel was released in 1992, when John died. Buckingham became the eighth elected Chairman of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and is now one of its vice-presidents.
