Edna May Healey, Baroness Healey (néeEdmunds; 14 June 1918 – 21 July 2010) was aBritish writer, lecturer and filmmaker.
Edna May Edmunds was born in theForest of Dean and educated atBells Grammar School,Coleford, Gloucestershire, where she was the first pupil to gain a place atOxford University. Her father, Edward Edmunds, a crane driver, threatened to send her to work in a pin factory if she did not apply herself to reading.[1] While studying English atSt Hugh's College she metDenis Healey, who was studying atBalliol College. She then trained as a teacher and married Healey in 1945, following his military service inWorld War II.[2] She became Baroness Healey in 1992 when her husband received a life peerage.
Although she began her writing career relatively late in life, her books were critically acclaimed and sometimes best-sellers, including biographies of successful women in powerful positions.[3] Lady Healey also produced two award-winning television documentaries.[4]
In 1993, she was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature[5]
Edna Healey has one entry in the 8th Edition ofThe Oxford Dictionary of Quotations where she says ofMargaret Thatcher,"She has no hinterland; in particular she has no sense of history."[6][7]
She died on 21 July 2010, aged 92. She was survived by Lord Healey, her husband of 65 years, three children and four grandchildren.[8]
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