Editing Edith Pargeter (section)

==Personal==
Pargeter was born in the village of [[Horsehay]] ([[Shropshire]], England), daughter of Edmund Valentine Pargeter (known as Ted) and his wife Edith ''nee'' Hordley. Her father was a clerk at the local Horsehay Company ironworks. She later moved with her parents to [[Dawley]] where she was educated at Dawley Church of England School and the old [[Coalbrookdale]] High School for Girls.<ref name=shropstar>{{cite news|title=Great Lives: From working-class roots to literary fame|work=Shropshire Star|date=27 December 2021|pages=20, 29}}Article by Toby Neal, part of series on West Midlands worthies.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/99473.Edith_Pargeter |title=Edith Pargeter, author |publisher=Goodreads |access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref> She had Welsh ancestry, and many of her short stories and books (both fiction and non-fiction) are set in Wales and its borderlands, or have Welsh protagonists.

After leaving school she worked as a temporary [[public employment service|labour exchange]] clerk, then as an assistant at a chemist's shop in Dawley, during which time her first novel, ''[[Hortensius, Friend of Nero]]'', was published in 1936.<ref name=BBC2008>{{cite web |title=In Profile: Edith Pargeter |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2008/07/08/edith_pargeter_feature.shtml|publisher=BBC - Shropshire |date=July 2008 |access-date=5 December 2013}}</ref><ref name=shropstar/> During [[World War II]], she enlisted in the [[Women's Royal Naval Service]] (the "Wrens") in 1940. She worked in an administrative role as a [[teleprinter]] operator at [[HMNB Devonport|Devonport]], and then at the Western Approaches Headquarters at Derby House, [[Liverpool]]. She reached the rank of [[petty officer]] by 1 January 1944 when she was awarded the [[British Empire Medal]] (BEM) in the [[New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=36309 |supp=y|page=28|date=31 December 1943}}</ref><ref name=shropstar/>

In 1947 Pargeter visited [[Czechoslovakia]] in a [[Workers' Educational Association]] party and became fascinated by the Czech language and culture. She wrote two books about then-Czechoslovakia: "The Fair Young Phoenix" and "The Coast of Bohemia".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2011-10-01 |title=Edith Pargeter: an English novelist in Prague |url=https://english.radio.cz/edith-pargeter-english-novelist-prague-8560112 |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=Radio Prague International |language=en}}</ref> She became fluent in Czech and published award-winning translations of Czech poetry and prose into English.<ref name=BBC2008/><ref name=shropstar/> She translated books by [[Jan Neruda]], [[Božena Němcová]], and [[Karel Hynek Mácha]], as well as books by 20th-century writers such as [[Bohumil Hrabal]], [[Ivan Klíma]], [[Ladislav Vančura]], and Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, the poet [[Jaroslav Seifert]].<ref name=":0" />

She was an active [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] supporter until, with her brother Ellis Pargeter (a local councillor in Dawley), she left the party in 1949 because they believed that it had deserted socialist principles.<ref name="shropstar" />