[3] She studied at Wakefield Girls' High School, and later received a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford.
Her research was completed within a year, funded by a grant from Wakefield Girls' High School.
[1] After a period of school teaching, she obtained a post of lecturing in English at Bedford College, London in 1939 but was suspended until 1946 because of the outbreak of World War II.
It was considered "impressive not only for its weight of scholarly insight but also for its careful consideration of the readers needed to be persuaded to share her prestigious knowledge of the Renaissance period and its values the better to appreciate the power of the text as drama".
She joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in her late twenties as it was the only way for her to see certain films in Russian and German.