With a curious family background, descended from Christopher Columbus and the Borgias, like many her family lost members on both sides during the Spanish Civil War. She lived in Seville with her very traditional family during Franco's dictatorship, studying art history with her university Professor cousin, a period which gave her invaluable insights into a world that was very different from contemporaneous London. With Spanish family and friends who are architects, designers and journalists, she was one of the earliest journalists to write about the renaissance of Spain in the 1980s, writing the Spanish issue of Design magazine in 1986, the first edition of a magazine devoted to Spanish design and architecture.
Her career has revolved entirely around design and architectural journalism, research and teaching, covering virtually every discipline but focussed in later years on architectural and planning issues around how people live. This has led very naturally into a parallel career as a local politician in Kensington and Chelsea, representing part of Portobello Market and Golborne Market, Trellick Tower and the Cheltenham Estate, and large areas of social housing: 'I particularly enjoy working on projects that draw on both sides of my working life, such as the successful campaign with residents to save Erno Goldfinger's Edenham Way from demolition. Their passion and understanding for the buildings they inhabit is quite humbling.'. She is Deputy Leader and Deputy Whip of the Labour Group and spokesperson for housing and property.
EDC has a long association with Docomomo-uk, the UK branch of the international Modern Movement architecture conservation and documentation group, is an active member of their Working Party, and was editor of the twice-yearly Docomomo Newsletter from 2000 to 2010.
Her background and experience leads her constantly back to Spain, and she is currently engaged in doctoral research at the University of Liverpool, London campus. Her thesis subject is: Constructing Modern Spain: Architecture, Politics and Ideology under Franco 1939-1975.
Future projects will see her complete a major publication, Modern Spanish Architecture, which is both an extensive narrative and a comprehensive reference book on modern architecture in Spain from 1875 to 2000.