 Cameron was born on 8 February 1940 in Leek, Staffordshire, the only child of working-class parents Tom Roy Sutton and Millicent (née Drew) Sutton.She read "literae humaniores" at Somerville College, Oxford, and was married, from 1962 to 1980, to Alan Cameron, with whom she has a son and a daughter.From 1978 to 1994 Cameron taught at King's College, London, serving as Professor of Ancient History (1978–1989), Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (1989–1994), and Founding Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies.