Author and broadcaster Anne Marie Edwards has died aged 90

Anne Marie Edwards, the author of 40 books, many of them about walks in the New Forest and Hampshire, has died aged 90. 

Her beloved husband of 68 years, Captain Mike Edwards, described her as incredible, saying: "She was an incredible woman and we had some extraordinary times. We were besotted with each other every day of our lives. We had fun in every way and never let each other rest!"

The couple, who have lived in the New Forest for 56 years and in the same house in Ashurst since 1970, have two children, three grandchildren and a great grandson. 

Anne was born in York in 1932 and evacuated to the North Yorkshire Moors during the war after her home was destroyed just yards away from the air raid shelter where she slept. 

Anne and Mike met when they were just teenagers and Mike, then at air force officer training college, visited the family home of her brother, his best friend. 

She won a grant to read English at Manchester University but her father, a former desert scout with 'Lawrence of Arabia', didn't believe in educating women and she had to persuade him to back her by putting her whole grant of £60 on a horse at 66/1 - and winning! 

The Edwards family moved around the country with Mike's postings and Anne became a highly-regarded teacher and lecturer, discovering the Broadway and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Sybil Lines during a school production of Pygmalion where she played Eliza Doolittle. 

She began a series called New Forest Walks on BBC Radio Solent in 1980. Her territory soon extended to Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen country with one book, Walking With William Shakespeare, published in the USA where she enjoyed lecture tours. Anne's love of exploring the countryside shone in her writing.

Anne leaves her husband Mike, children Julie and Christopher, grandchildren Richard, Robert and Michael and great grandson Malakai.

Her funeral service takes place today at 11am at Christ Church, Colbury.