Subject

Nurse, journalist, broadcaster, novelist and 'agony aunt'. Born Claire Berenice Chetwynd in London. Her early life was marred by the cruelty of her parents who put her in a psychiatric hospital when they emigrated to Canada. She returned to the UK in 1951 and trained as a nurse. After the birth of her first child she took up writing as a career and graduated to giving advice in women's and girls' magazines and eventually television. She also had a prolific output of fiction and non-fiction. When she knew she was dying, she was reported as saying "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS I'll come back and bloody haunt him!"