The values of Baroness Williams of Crosby, one of the most successful and inspiring women in British public life since the Second World War, were rooted in her Catholic faith

An academic and dramatic star at Oxford, a national newspaper journalist by 24, an MP by 34, when women were still a rarity in the House of Commons, and later a Labour Cabinet minister, Shirley Williams went on to found a new political party that for a few years seemed on the brink of breaking the mould of British politics. She was hugely popular with people across the political divide, admired not only for her intellect but for her integrity and warmth.

She was born in 1930 of starry stock. Her mother was Vera Brittain, the writer who summed up the grief of those who survived the First World War in her memoir Testament of Youth; her father was Sir George Catlin, a political scientist and unsuccessful Labour candidate in two general elections. Her childhood and schooling were interrupted by the Second World War; her parents sent her to the US for three years, which gave her an abiding interest in America but created a distance from her mother, and it took her years to learn to love her again. At one time she used to fund her trips across the Atlantic by being a singer on board ship; she always had a low, somewhat husky speaking voice that was matched by a smoky jazz-club singing style.