Emily Young was born in London into a family of writers, artists, politicians, naturalists and explorers. As a young woman, she worked primarily as a painter, studying briefly at Chelsea School of Art, Central St Martins in London and Stonybrook University, New York. She left London in the late 60s and spent the next years travelling widely, studying art and culture. In the early 1980s she started carving stone, preferring to use discarded materials from abandoned quarries. Young’s work is in important public and private collections throughout the world. She has studios in Italy and Dorset, with a showroom in London.