Joyce Nicholson was educated at Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne, and the University of Melbourne. A daughter of the publisher Daniel Wrixon Thorpe, she began work with her father's publishing company as a junior typist in 1935, later becoming Managing Director, and later still, sole owner of D. W. Thorpe Pty Ltd. Nicholson was an editor of Australian Bookseller and Publisher and Australian Books in Print, was an organiser of the first Children's Book Week in Victoria (1957), a founding member of the National Book Council (1974), and a co-founder (with Hilary McPhee and Di Gribble, qq.v.) and director of Sisters Publishing Ltd.
An active participant in the Women's Electoral Lobby, Nicholson published a number of books on women's issues as well as writing for children. Nicholson also published a number of books on games including (under the pseudonym 'Ace High') a book on the game of Bridge. In 1983 Nicholson won the Australian Women's Individual Bridge Championship.
