She also wrote several non-fiction books, including Out of Harm's Way, an account of the overseas evacuation of children from Britain in World War II.
Born in London, Mann was educated at St Paul's Girls' School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read Archaeology and Anglo-Saxon Studies, graduating in 1959.
She appeared on television programmes such as Question Time and represented the South West on radio's Round Britain Quiz.
[2] Mann lived near Truro in Cornwall and was married to the archaeologist and historian Charles Thomas until he died in 2016.
[4] The couple married a week after Mann completed her Cambridge finals in 1959, and had two sons and two daughters.