Bicycles and Blisters: YHA Memoirs from 1938–84
By Margaret E. Whitney
ISBN 9781912078011
 
Margaret Edith Whitney was born on 30 July 1914 in the King’s Norton district of Birmingham. Her parents were Hilda and Edward (Teddy) Whitney. She had an elder sister Hildred who was to become a Good Shepherd nun. Music and her faith played a big part in her life. Her father played the trombone and the piano. She played the violin and joined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, but was not allowed to take it up as a career as it was deemed to be unsuitable.
She trained as a secretary and worked amongst other things for the director general of the BBC. She was also a legal secretary latterly – working for a solicitor in Rubery. She had a great love of the countryside, and a tremendous sense of adventure which never left her.