Margaret Neve was born and brought up in Wolverhampton, then a busy manufacturing town. She studied at Wolverhampton School of Art, Birmingham College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. She was awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship, and a scholarship to study in Florence (1951).

She has exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and in many mixed shows, including Roland, Browse and Delbanco, 1954 and Artists of Fame and Promise at the Leicester Galleries, 1953. Solo exhibitions have included New Arts Centre (1962), Marjorie Parr Gallery, 1976/1977/1979; New Grafton Gallery, 1981; Montpellier Sandelson, Montpellier Street, London, 1987/1990/1994 and at the Robert Sandelson Gallery, Cork Street, London in 2002 and 2006. Her work is in private and corporate collections in many parts of the world.

Margaret Neve has written and illustrated a number of children's books. In 1998 Margaret was featured in a television programme, First Light, presented by Sister Wendy Beckett.