Andrews was born and raised in the Liverpool suburb of Fazakerley. She is the daughter of a hairdresser and a police officer. She was educated at the Convent of Notre-Dame at Everton Valley where she did not excel at English but had a passion for history and literature, eventually earning 5 O-levels.
She then trained as short-hand typist at a well-rated commercial college in Colquitt Street. After graduating she became a secretary at the Lily Cups company in Aintree and married her husband Robert, a policeman from Fazakerley. At that time she was living in Fazakerley. Andrews remembers, ""In those days I never did any writing at all. I didn't want to be a writer.She quit her job after about three years at Lily Cups when she became pregnant. Giving birth to triplets, a daughter Helen and two sons Paul and Keith, she raised her family and started to publish novels.