We should celebrate the enormous impact on secondary mathematics education that Sue (and her co-author, Linda) made. Not just in the UK but, through the English Language Book Society (ELBS) editions of their A-level textbooks, they reached schools across Africa and Asia, helping generations of students become mathematicians, engineers and scientists.

In A-level pure mathematics and mechanics there was no near-rival to ‘Bostock and Chandler’. And when their publisher, Stanley Thornes, wanted to expand ‘the brand’ into 11-to-16 mathematics for UK schools, he turned to Sue and Linda to create ST(P) Mathematics. Free-standing GCSE textbooks followed to make Sue’s titles the mainstay of what was, for many years, the most successful mathematics ‘list’ in the UK.

I was privileged to manage that list and to work closely with Sue over 15 years. Editors, typesetters and salespeople all admired her professionalism and dedication to creating top-quality textbooks. 

Penelope Barber