Background
Smallwood was born in Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.
Smallwood was born in Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.
She was educated in Eastbourne.
She joined Chatto & Windus as a secretary in 1936, working with Ian Parsons and Harold Raymond. He was a chartered accountant, but was killed in action while serving as a navigator with the Royal Air Force. She continued to work at Chatto & Windus during the war, and became a partner in 1945.
Among the authors under her care were Laurens van der Post, Laurie Lee, Aldous Huxley, Iris Murdoch, A. South. Byatt, Toni Morrison, Compton Mackenzie and Dirk Bogarde.
Smallwood was appointed to the board of Chatto & Windus when it became a limited company in 1953, and succeeded Ian Parsons as chairman and managing director in 1975. She retired in 1982, succeeded at Chatto & Windus by Carmen Callil.
She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1973, and received an honorary doctorate of literature (Doctor of Letters) from Leeds University in 1981. She died at Westminster Hospital.
She was also a member of the board of the company that owned Jonathan Cape from 1969, The Bodley Head from 1973 and Virago Press from 1982 (taken over by Random House in 1987).