She studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.

She died on 16 June 2009 in Bournemouth.

Manners and Society

• 1940 - The Seven Chars of Chelsea
• 1943 - War Factory (with Tom Harrisson)

Novels

• 1958 - The Hours Before Dawn; (Edgar Award for Best Novel, 1960)
• 1959 - Uncle Paul
• 1961 - Seven Lean Years (US: Wait for the Wedding)
• 1963 - The Trouble Makers
• 1964 - The Jealous One
• 1967 - Prisoner's Base
• 1969 - Possession
• 1972 - Appointment with Yesterday
• 1975 - The Long Shadow
• 1977 - The Spider-Orchid
• 1980 - With No Crying
• 1982 - The Parasite Person
• 1990 - Listening in the Dusk
• 1991 - Dangerous Thoughts
• 1993 - The Echoing Stones
• 1994 - King of the World

Collections

• 1970 - Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark
• 1974 - By Horror Haunted
• 1984 - A Lovely Day to Die

Poetry

• 1996 - Duet in Verse (with Leslie Minchin)

Celia FremlinCelia Fremlin