Introduction
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 atBells 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. 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. 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. Lady Healey also made two award-winning television documentaries.
She was elected in 1993 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
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.
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)