She became wholesale distributor for Pan Paperbacks in East Anglia in 1965 before going on to obtain a contract to accommodate a children's book list from Hamlyn three years later.
[5] She did not excel at school,[4] but won a sack race for which she received a prize presented to her by the local Member of Parliament Harold Macmillan.
[5][6] She married fellow ICI employee Edward Bertram in 1935 and relocated to King's Lynn in Norfolk, East Anglia before the start of the Second World War.
[5] The Bertram family became Hamlyn's wholesale supplier to the retailers of Norfolk to help the company supply a large quantity of publications to the county following union troubles at its Rushden warehouse in late 1968.
[2][4] She and her oldest son Kip went on to establish Bertrams with a small amount of money in 1968 and obtained rented space in exchange for the sale of the chicken sheds.
Not only could she charm the birds from the trees, but she could wean publishers off their established discount terms -they actually did come round to paying the price of wholesale distribution.
Within months of Bertrams founding, the company became one of Britain's primary book wholesellers, adding internet suppliers to their clients in her final years.
[5][8] She held a half-price sale of damage books every six months at the Norwich warehouse and proceeds were donated to the Norfolk Diabetes Appeal.