[2][3] She studied at East Dean Grammar School in Cinderford, but had to leave at the age of 16 to train as a librarian in Gloucester; a "crisis in family finances" meant she was unable to go on to the university education her mother had led her to hope for.
Notable among her supervisees were Richard Maher at Queens', Jan Ravens at Homerton, Andy White and Morwenna Banks at Robinson.
"These episodes suggested that Valerie's life was becoming more adventurous and dangerous as she neared retirement age," wrote Sue Limb in her obituary in The Guardian.
She collaborated with Beijing colleague Professor Li Yanshu in a standard comprehension textbook for Chinese students of English.
After she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the 1990s, she told her husband Michael that she would commit suicide when she judged the degeneration caused by the illness to have become intolerable, but before she lost the necessary physical ability, and did so in 2007.