Sayers, Dorothy L.

English writer and translator, born in Oxford as the only child of Henry Sayers, rector of Christchurch Cathedral Choir School, and his wife Helen Leigh Sayers. When Dorothy L. (Leigh) Sayers was four years old, the family moved to Bluntisham in Huntingdonshire where the father was appointed pastor. The parents had cultural and linguistic interests, and regularly travelled with their daughter to London to visit exhibitions and theatres. The girl was very gifted linguistically, and learned French as a child with a governess who taught her at home, as well as German.