 Hilton was born in London and graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA English Hons (1971) and an MA Drama & Theatre Arts (1972).She visited Australia in 1974 becoming an Australian citizen in 1983.She worked as the inaugural Drama Officer for the Victorian Ministry for the Arts, a writer on TV Channel Ten's "Young Doctors", the Executive Officer for the Australian Society of Authors, the inaugural Executive Secretary for the Victorian Premier's Literature Awards, a Publicity Manager for Angus & Robertson, a segment producer & writer of specialist guest segments for TV Channel Ten's daily "Til Ten with Joan McInnes", on which she also presented on-air book reviews and as a project officer for the Literature Board of the Australia Council.