Science and Medicine

Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie (née Cohen; born 13 October 1946) is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician, serving as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire from 1983 until 1997. She was a Junior Health Minister for two years, resigning in 1988 during the salmonella-in-eggs controversy. By the time Currie lost her seat as an MP in 1997, she had begun a new career as a novelist and broadcaster. She is the author of six novels, and has also written four works of non-fiction. In September 2002, the publication of Currie's Diaries (1987–92) caused a sensation, as they revealed a four-year affair with colleague (and later Prime Minister) John Major between 1984 and 1988. Currie's record as Junior Health Minister was heavily scrutinised in the 2010s, and to a lesser extent at the time, for her decision to appoint Jimmy Savile as chairman of Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, where it is now known he molested and raped mentally unstable patients. Currie previously expressed her "full confidence" in him. Currie remains an outspoken public figure, with a reputation for being "highly opinionated", and currently earns her living as an author and media personality.

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See also

• ▸1924 Los Angeles pneumonic plague outbreak
• ▸Avadi City Municipal Corporation
• ▸1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak

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