About Edna Healey

Edna May Healey, Baroness Healey ( Edmunds; 14 June 1918 – 21 July 2010) was a British writer, lecturer and filmmaker.

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 who threatened her that failing to apply herself to reading would leave her working in a 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. Healey also made two award-winning television documentaries.

She was elected in 1993 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.