Edna Healey
Edna May Healey, Baroness Healey (née Edmunds; 14 June 1918 – 21 July 2010) was a British writer, lecturer and filmmaker.
Life and career[]
Edna May Edmunds was born in the Forest of Dean and educated at Bells Grammar School, Coleford, Gloucestershire, where she was the first pupil to gain a place at Oxford University. Her father, Edward Edmunds, was a crane driver. He encouraged her to read, warning her that if she did not study she would be sent to work in the pin factory.[1] While studying English at St Hugh's College she met Denis Healey, who was studying at Balliol College. She then trained as a teacher and married Healey in 1945 after his military service in World War II.[2] She became Baroness Healey in 1992 when her husband received a life peerage.
Though she began her writing career relatively late in life, her books were critically acclaimed and sometimes best-sellers. She wrote non-fiction books, often biographies of successful women in powerful positions.[3] Lady Healey also made two award-winning television documentaries.[4]
She was elected in 1993 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature[5]
Death[]
She died on 21 July 2010, aged 92. She was survived by Lord Healey, her husband of 65 years, three children and four grandchildren.[6]
Books[]
- Lady Unknown, the Life of Angela Burdett-Coutts (1978)
- Wives of Fame (1986) (subjects were Mary Livingstone, Jenny Marx and Emma Darwin)
- Coutts and Co (1992)
- The Queen's House: A History of Buckingham Palace (1997)
- Emma Darwin (2001)
- Part of the Pattern (2006) (Lady Healey's memoirs)
Documentaries[]
- Mrs Livingstone, I Presume (1982)
- One More River, the Life of Mary Slessor in Nigeria (1984)
References[]
- ^ "Edna Healey obituary". 22 July 2010.
- ^ Obituary in The Times, 24 July 2010
- ^ Denis Healey's wife, Edna, dies aged 92
- ^ Edna Healey, author, film-maker and Denis's wife, dies at 92
- ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
- ^ The Courier and Advertiser obituary, 24 July 2010
External links[]
- 1918 births
- 2010 deaths
- British non-fiction writers
- British women writers
- British baronesses
- People educated at Bells Grammar School
- People from Forest of Dean District
- Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Spouses of life peers