[1][2] After attending St. Catherine Academy in Belize City (the basis for St. Cecilia's Academy in her novel Beka Lamb), Edgell studied journalism at the school of modern languages at the Polytechnic of Central London (1965) and continued her education at the University of the West Indies (1990).

[5] She has also lived for extended periods in such diverse places as Jamaica, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Somalia, working with development organizations and the Peace Corps.

Edgell also toured internationally, giving book readings and delivering papers on the history and literature of Belize.

Edgell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to literature and to the community.

[9] Edgell's debut novel, Beka Lamb, published in 1982, details the early years of the nationalist movement in British Honduras from the eyes of a teenage girl attending high school in the colony.

Published a year after Belize became independent, Beka Lamb was the first novel to be published in the new nation and went on to claim the distinction of being Belize's first novel to gain an international audience, winning Britain's Fawcett Society Book Prize in 1982[5] (awarded annually to a work of fiction that contributes to an understanding of women's position in society today).

The story is told against the backdrop of the brutal forestry slavery of the time and slave revolts, true historical moments in the history of the country that is now known as Belize.