Rosemary Joy Manning (b. Dorset 1911– 5 April 1988, Tunbridge Wells)[1] was a British author of both adult and children's books. Her best-known adult book was The Chinese Garden and she was also well-known for her popular Dragon children's series. She was also known by the pseudonyms Sarah Davys, Mary Voyle.[1]
Contents |
She studied at Royal Holloway College from 1930 to 1933 and graduated with an honours degree in Classics.
She first worked in an Oxford Street department store then as a secretary[1] In the 1930s, unhappy at work she suffered a nervous breakdown nd was unsuccessfully treated at the Maudsley Hospital by unsympathetic to her lesbianism. Her former headmistress offered her teaching work and she stayed as a teacher for a further 35 years. In 1950 she moved with a friend to Hampstead. north London to take over a long-established girls' preparatory school and became headmistress.
She later took up writing, After retirement, she came out as a lesbian during a television interview in 1980.[1]