Virginia McKenna Star label with two line drawings of McKenna by her sister-in-law Linden Travers, but these were replaced by a photograph when the album was reissued on the Rim label in 1979. Her audiobook work includes "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and narration of "The Lonely Doll" by Dare Wright. She is a patron of Cinnamon Trust - a national charity that helps elderly people to keep their pets. Virginia McKenna Virginia Anne McKenna, OBE (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films "A Town
Frances Hodgson Burnett stressed the age difference—Townsend was ten years younger than she—and she referred to him as her secretary. Biographer Ann Thwaite doubts he loved her. She claims at that time the 50-year-old Burnett was "stout, rouged and unhealthy". Thwaite believes Townsend needed her to help with his acting career and support him financially. Within months, in a letter to her sister, she admitted the marriage was in trouble. She described Townsend as scarcely sane and hysterical. Thwaite argues Townsend blackmailed her into the marriage: he wanted money from her and he wanted to control her as a husband. Unable to bear