She was born in Bournemouth, England on 8 May 1898 and lived in South Africa until she went to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she was one of the first women to matriculate as a full member of Oxford University. She founded the first Tolkien Society of which she was secretary. She persuaded J. R. R. Tolkien to become the society's honorary president. She wrote her first novel in 1975 and continued writing until her death in 1996.

Novels

• The Green Knight (1975) ISBN 0-901720-63-1/978-0-901720-63-4 (UK edition)
• King Arthur's Daughter (1976) ISBN 0-86036-012-1/978-0-86036-012-4 (UK edition)
• The King's Damsel (1976) ISBN 0-86036-018-0/978-0-86036-018-6 (UK edition) which the Warner Bros. animated movie Quest For Camelot is based on.
• Judy and Julia (1977) ISBN 0-86036-020-2/978-0-86036-020-9 (UK edition)
• Blaedud the Birdman (1978) ISBN 0-86036-080-6/978-0-86036-080-3 (UK edition)
• The Wife of Bath (1978) ISBN 0-86036-057-1/978-0-86036-057-5 (UK edition)
• Miranty and the Alchemist (1983) ISBN 0-233-98042-3/978-0-233-98042-3 (UK edition)
• The Enchantresses (1998) (with Mike Ashley) ISBN 0-575-06524-9/978-0-575-06524-6 (UK edition)

Omnibus

• Three Damosels (1978) ISBN 0-575-06340-8/978-0-575-06340-2 (UK edition)

Collections

• The Notorious Abbess (1993) ISBN 0-89733-387-X/978-0-89733-387-0 (USA edition)

Non fiction

• Around Darlington in Old Photographs (1990) ISBN 0-86299-812-3/978-0-86299-812-7 (UK edition)
• Croft, Hurworth, Neasham, Middleton And Dinsdale in Old Picture Postcards (1996)

Anthologies containing stories by Vera Chapman

• The Merlin Chronicles (1995) ISBN 1854873326

Short stories

• "Crusader Damosel" (1978) (in the anthology "Cosmic Knights", 1984)
• "A Sword for Arthur" (1995)