Born in
Toronto, Ontario, she is the daughter of Max Crittenden, a former editor with the
Toronto Telegram, and journalist and book critic Yvonne Crittenden. Her stepfather was journalist
Peter Worthington. She graduated in 1981 from
Northern Secondary School in Toronto. She did not attend university but became a full-time general assignment reporter and feature writer at the
Toronto Sun until 1984. She then traveled and
freelanced for magazines and newspapers until marrying
David Frum in 1988. The couple moved to
New York and later to Washington, D.C. She is a convert to
Judaism. Their daughter, Miranda Frum, died from complications of a brain tumor in 2024. ==Works==