Ffion Hague was born in Cardiff. A native Welsh-speaker, she studied English Literature at Oxford and then took an MPhil in Eighteenth-Century Welsh Poetry at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. After graduating a second time, Ffion joined the Civil Service and was posted to the Welsh Office. She held a number of policy positions before being appointed Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. On leaving the Civil Service, she became Director of Operations at the business-facing charity, Arts & Business. In 2000, she became a headhunter and since 2003, has been a director of Hanson & Green. Ffion was a trustee of The British Council and also a judge of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000. She is married to William Hague and lives in Yorkshire.