She was born in Belfast in 1981 in what she later described as into
"one of the darkest and most turbulent years of the Troubles: the year the hunger strikes began, when within a few months Bobby Sands and nine others died; when things seemed to be spiralling irrevocably out of control."[1]
She studied at Strathearn School and later at Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a First-Class Degree, and Goldsmiths, University of London. Caldwell left the city she had always considered "boring, introverted" in 1999,[1] but later declared: "yes, it's true: I do love this city, and I do love these streets, and I am proud to be from here."[1]
Her second full-length play, Guardians, premiered at the 2009 HighTide Festival in Halesworth. Reviewing the production, critic Michael Billington wrote: "[Caldwell] writes with real power about lost love. I was much moved."[5]Notes to Future Self was produced at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March 2011, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh. It was described in The Stage as "Brave, beautiful, and quite extraordinary".[6]
"This is a gripping and powerful depiction of the effect on a family when one sibling goes missing. The beautifully-told story begins when a body is found and the remaining daughter returns to be with her family while they await identification. Girl From Mars is moving and emotionally taut. It veers away from sentimentality and felt personal and believable. The structure is complex – combining three different timescales – and uses radio to its full potential, using many techniques including voice-overs, dialogue, text messages, and voice mail. The story has a shades-of-grey resolution about the way a person's life can tragically stop short – and this is echoed in the subtle way the writer ends her own play too."
Caldwell's second novel, The Meeting Point, centred on a young Irish missionary couple who journey to Bahrain, was published in February 2011. It was described by the Sunday Times as "Compelling, passionate and deeply resonant",[9] and by The Guardian as "haunting... compulsively readable".[10]
In 2022, Caldwell published These Days, a fictionalized account of the Belfast Blitz, revolving around the lives of two sisters. The book won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction in 2023.[12]
