Anna Ladegaard (14 December 1913 in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

- 16 May 2000) was a Danish writer.

Biography

Born in

, Ladegaard studied at Pitman's College in London. In 1952-53 she worked at the Danish Embassy in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and in 1953 she moved to

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

, living in

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

and

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

. She returned to Denmark in 1960. Ladegaard began writing in the 1930s, often documenting her travels and writing short stories and articles for newspapers. She published her debut novel ''Opbrud i oktober'' in October 1966, a psychological novel set in Rhodesia. The novel was followed by ''Hvor var Hannah Jacoby?'' in 1968, a novel about a Danish woman who survives a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

. This was followed by novels such as ''Udenfor sæsonen'' (1970), ''Alle mine'' (1972), ''Svens familie'' (1977), ''Günters anden verden'' (1983), ''Her på bjerget'' (1988) and ''Genfortælling'' (1993). Ladegaard's novels were typically realistic and intense, and explored characters with a destiny. In 1974 she was awarded the Golden Laurel Award. She was also a recipient of Aage Krarup-Nielsen's ''Mindelegat''.

References

Danish women writers Danish women novelists 1913 births 2000 deaths Writers from Aarhus {{Denmark-writer-stub