Elizabeth Longford, literary matriarch and biographer royal, dies at 96

Elizabeth Longford, the renowned historian who was also one of the finest British biographers of the last century, died yesterday aged 96.

Her daughter, Lady Antonia Fraser, said the Countess of Longford, widow of the social reformer Lord Longford, died peacefully at her home in East Sussex. Lady Antonia, one of her eight children, said: "She died peacefully in her sleep like Sleeping Beauty. She was a well respected lady and tremendous person, and I am now having to break the news to her large family, who she always made feel so special."

After several attempts to enter parliament as a Labour candidate, Lady Longford made a late start to producing historical works, the first of which, on Rhodesian history, was written when she was in her fifties.

But she became best known for her biographies of leading British figures from monarchy, literature and politics and was awarded a CBE in 1974. Applying a respectful approach to her subjects, she wrote about Queen Victoria, the Queen Mother and the Queen as well as books on the future of the House of Windsor. Other biographies included Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Byron and the Duke of Wellington. Her many admirers said she managed to illuminate history with knowledge, energy and wit.

As the daughter of two doctors, she went to Oxford University in the 1920s where she met her future husband, Frank Pakenham, whom she married in 1931. The couple converted to Catholicism and shared strongly-held socialist beliefs, enjoying a harmonious union spanning nearly seven decades.

Lord Longford, a Labour peer and campaigner for penal reform, died last August aged 95. Before her husband's death Lady Longford said: "When we reached our diamond wedding and then both entered our nineties, our friends began to treat our marriage somewhat as a union of dinosaurs." The marriage produced four boys and four girls. Three of the children – Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington and Thomas Pakenham – are writers.

Lady Antonia said a private family funeral would be held in East Sussex and details of a public memorial service in London would be announced later.