She was born on 16 June 1904 at Robin Hood's Bay, the daughter of a WM minister, Richard Harold Colwell (e.m. 1899); d. 1954). She qualified as a librarian through University College, London and after two years at Bolton Public Library took up a post at Hendon. Here she became well known as a pioneer of children's libraries and as a story teller appeared on the TV programme 'Jackanory'. She wrote 25 books, including the autobiographical How I Became a Librarian (1956) and gave many hours to reading Bible stories in children's hospitals. She died at Knutsford on 17 September 2002.