Ann (as she was always known) was born on 4 September 1930 at Westminster Hospital, the daughter of actor Arthur Chesney (1882–1949) and artist Kathleen ('Kitty') née Ridge (1901–1988).
[1][2] At the time of her birth her parents lived in Pimlico, London, but she was to grow up in Battersea, then a poor working-class part of the city,[3] And the family were so 'hard up' that Kitty "sometimes pretended she had eaten earlier to have enough food to feed her".
[5][4] A 'lifelong friend' Jill Kaye recalled that "at the British Museum when we were five or six ... an old chap gave her sixpence ... impressed she was translating Ancient Greek from the Rosetta Stone.
"[5] Ann attended Guildhouse School in Pimlico, London, and then, having fled the blitz with her mother, was educated at Ware Grammar School in Hertfordshire[6][4] She performed exceptionally at the latter,[4] and unusually for a young woman of her background, won a scholarship to read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford from where she graduated in 1951.
[2] They both joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and heard Martin Luther King Jr. address a rally.