Biography
Born as Verily Bruce on 12 January 1915 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, she was the daughter of Francis Rosslyn Courtenay Bruce and Rachel Gurney, the fourth of her parents' five children.
Verily Bruce was educated at Edgbaston High School for Girls, Birmingham, between the ages of four and seven, then she attended Normanhurst School in Battle, Sussex. At 16, she attended the Royal College of Music in London. She was in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry between 1938 and 1941.
On 2 August 1940, she married Captain Donald Clive Anderson (1897–1957), thereafter using the name Verily Anderson for her writing. She achieved success at the age of 41, in 1956, with the publication of Spam Tomorrow, "a deft and frequently uproarious account of her wartime experiences on the home front...a new kind of memoir, one of the first to explore the lives of women in wartime." The Andersons ran a holiday home in Sussex catering for children of parents living abroad – characterised by one newspaper as "infant pandemonium" because of its no-rules philosophy. After her husband died, leaving five children aged from three to 15, Anderson wrote with increased vigour, and her 1958 book, Beware of Children, was adapted for the film No Kidding (1960) by the producers of the Carry On series, starring Leslie Phillips, Geraldine McEwan and Joan Hickson.
Between 1946 and 2002, Anderson also worked with the BBC in TV and radio, on Woman's Hour and writing TV plays.
On 10 August 1971, she married Paul Edward Paget (1901–1985). Her maid of honour was Joyce Grenfell and John Betjeman was best man.
Verily Anderson last lived in Frogshall, Northrepps, Norfolk, where she died at home on 16 July 2010, aged 95, just after completing a book, Castellans of Herstmonceux (1911-2010) (Bader International Study Centre, 2011). She is buried with her husband Paul Paget in the neighbouring village of Sidestrand.
She had five children, including Rachel Anderson, author of children's literature, and Janie Hampton, author, radio producer and international health planner.
