KNOX-MAWER, June 1930-2006
(June Mawer)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born May 10, 1930, in Wrexham, Wales; died of cancer, April 19, 2006. Broadcaster, journalist, and author. An accomplished author whose books were often based on her travels abroad, Knox-Mawer was best known as host of the BBC radio program Woman's Hour. After attending a girls' school in her native Wales, she learned to be a reporter at the Chester Chronicle in the late 1940s. This was followed by work at the London Daily Express until 1957. By that time, her husband, a successful attorney and judge, had accepted an assignment as a magistrate in Aden, Yemen. Her experiences among the Arabic peoples there inspired her first book, a travel diary titled The Sultans Came to Tea (1961). Next, her husband took the family to Fiji, Nauru, and Tonga in the South Pacific. Again, Knox-Mawer turned her life there into two travel diaries, A Gift of Islands (1965) and A South Sea Spell (1975), as well as a history, A World of Islands (1968). While in Fiji, too, Knox-Mawer was introduced to the world of broadcasting, where she was hired by the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) to be an announcer and interviewer. Her attractive speaking voice was a major reason she was hired, as well as her journalism experience, and she soon learned to be an accomplished radio interviewer. She and her husband returned to England in 1970, and Knox-Mawer resumed radio work at the BBC in London. Here, she was a presenter on Woman's Hour and, later, the music review program Concerto. Knox-Mawer, who loved her native Wales, also enjoyed making documentaries, especially about her homeland. In addition, she was a novelist, producing such titles as Marama of the Islands (1986), The Shadow of Wings (1995), and the Romantic Novelists Award-winning Sandstorm (1995). Her last book was the autobiography A Ram in the Well: A Welsh Homecoming (2001).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Knox-Mawer, June, A Ram in the Well: A Welsh Homecoming, J. Murray (London, England), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), May 3, 2006.