Rendell, Ruth

The British crime writer Ruth Rendell was born in London as Ruth Barbara Graseman. Her mother was of Scandinavian origin and her father a former shipyard worker in Plymouth who was able to train as a technology and mathematics teacher as an adult. Ruth Rendell attended the County High School for Girls in Loughton, Essex. She was a feature writer and deputy editor at a number of local newspapers between 1948 and 1952. In 1950, she married Donald Rendell, a journalist who later became a parliamentary reporter for the Daily Mail.