Throughout childhood, Maxwell lived with her family in Oxford at Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion, where the offices of Pergamon Press, a publishing company run by her father, were also located. Her mother said that all her children were brought up as Anglicans. Maxwell studied first at Oxford High School for Girls in North Oxford and then, aged nine, was enrolled at Edgarley Hall preparatory school in Somerset, followed by Headington School at age thirteen. She attended Marlborough College to study for A-Levels, before going on to earn a degree in Modern History with Languages from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1985.
