Linda Newbery was born in Romford, Essex in 1952. She grew up in Epping and attended a grammar school in nearby Loughton. ref>http://www.achuka.co.uk/archive/interviews/lnsg.php. As a child, she kept her writing a secret, having been told by a headteacher that writing was "not a proper job" and filled several exercise books with her stories. As a young adult, she also experimented with writing poetry.

Several of her novels have historical settings. Her Shouting Wind trilogy follows the women of one family through three generations; The Shouting Wind tells the story of Kay, a WAAF in the Second World War, The Cliff Path follows her hippie daughter Abigail, and A Fear of Heights completes the trilogy with the life of Abigail's own daughter Tamsin, an engineering student in the 1980s.

The Shell House links two stories, one set in the present, the other during the First World War, through the setting of a now-ruined house in Epping Forest (based on Copped Hall). Greg, in the present-day story, is horrified to find himself strongly attracted to another boy. In the past, Edmund Pearson, son of the wealthy Pearson family, is looked upon to supply a son and heir, but is secretly in love with another officer, Alex. The two stories are also linked through questions of faith, belief and doubt.

Sisterland also links past and present through the story of Sarah Reubens, a Kindertransport refugee to Northampton, who conceals her Jewish identity. In the present-day story, her granddaughter Hilly slowly realises the truth about "Heidigran's" past, and its implications for her own identity.

Set in Stone is a Gothic mystery in the tradition of Wilkie Collins and the Victorian sensation novel. Set in an Arts and Crafts house on the South Downs, it partly concerns the disappearance of one of four stone-carvings, the West Wind, and the secrets hidden beneath the house's immaculate surfaces.

Although Newbery is probably best known for her young adult novels, she also writes for younger readers. For children of about 10+, her novels include At the Firefly Gate, Lost Boy, Catcall and Nevermore, all published by Orion. For Usborne Publishing she has written Polly's March and Andie's Moon, part of the Historical House series for which she collaborated with Adele Geras and Ann Turnbull. She has also published a number of short stories and poems.

She has twice been shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, for The Shell House (2002) and Sisterland (2003); several of her other novels have been nominated. The Shell House was also shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2002. She won the Costa Children's Book of the Year prize for 2006 (formerly the Whitbread Prize) with her young adult novel Set in Stone, and Catcall was Silver Medal winner in the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize. In 2010 she was awarded an IBBY Honour (International Board on Books for Young People) for The Sandfather.

She was a judge for the Whitbread Book Awards (now the Costa Book Awards) in 2005, and for the Guardian Children's Book Prize in 2007, and has reviewed fiction for the Times Educational Supplement, The Guardian and other publications.