 Born Nora Ratcliff Blakesley, the daughter of a merchant, she was educated at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Girls' Grammar School and at Saint Felix School, Southwold before going up to Newnham College, Cambridge to study English graduating in 1935.In the same year, she married Richard William David (died 1993) with whom she had two sons and two daughters.She was a Councillor in the city of Cambridge from 1964–67, and from 1968–74, when she became a County Councillor in Cambridgeshire County Council.