Margaret Amosu was born on 3 August 1920 in
Ilford, near
London. She was educated at
Harrow Weald County School, where she was taught by James Britten, Nancy Martin and
Harold Rosen. In 1938 she joined the
Land Army and then worked as a riveter in an aircraft factory. A Communist, trade unionist and internationalist, as shop steward, she ensured women workers received the full rate for their factory jobs. In 1944 she fell in love with Arthur Melzer, a
Czechoslovak communist. In 1945 he discovered that his family had survived German occupation, and returned to them, days before the birth of his daughter Vaughan. Struggling against prejudice as an unmarried mother, Margaret became librarian at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute in 1948. In 1957 she married the Nigerian anti-colonial activist Nunasu Amosu, who was studying in Britain. Their daughter, Akwemaho, was born in 1960, and in 1963 she moved to
Ibadan and became librarian at the
University of Ibadan. There she published a bibliography of African creative writing, helped develop an Africa-centred curriculum, and oversaw the building of a new library as medical librarian of the country's main teaching hospital. In 1977 she returned to
England, becoming librarian of
Phaidon Press in
Oxford. ==Works==