Women of the Century Database Display

Surname	Auty
Forename/s	Phyllis
Other Names	Richards (pseudonym)
Dates

Biographical Notes	Writer and expert on the Balkans. Daughter of George Auty (headmaster of Kimberworth Central School). Married J. Burnie. Educated at Rotherham High School for Girls and St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. Phyllis began her career teaching history at Henley-on-Thames Grammar School in 1935. From 1938 she was a lecturer in Internal Affairs at Oxford University before joining the BBC new department for three years in 1940. Her Foreign Office and War Office jobs (1943-45) put her close to the events which took Tito to power. She worked at the press department of the UNRRA (United Nations) before joining the School of Slavonic Studies at London University in 1947. In 1968 she interviewed Tito for the second time and in 1970 published a biography ‘Tito’. She wrote many other books about Yugoslavia and made contributions to several publications including the Encyclopaedia Britannica; the Economist and the Guardian.
Further Sources	Rotherham Advertiser 8.11.1941, 8.5.1970; Author and Writers Who’s Who 1963
Associated Places	Rotherham