Edna Mann was one of the few female artists to have attended David Bomberg’s classes at the Borough Polytechnic and, like Dorothy Mead, she had followed him to the Borough after attending his classes at the South-East Technical College and the City Literary Institute. She had accepted a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1945 but left after one year because of her tutors’ trenchant opposition to Bomberg’s influence. Despite her obvious gifts and loyalty, Mann fell victim to Bomberg’s own particular form of misogyny. After becoming pregnant, Mann was ostracised by Bomberg who believed that motherhood and the life of an artist were mutually exclusive. Although Mann continued to paint throughout her life, she rarely exhibited her work and it is extremely rare that one has the opportunity to see her paintings on public display, although Sarah Rose and the Borough Road Gallery have done much to redress this in recent years. She is an interesting artist whose work sailed much closer to abstraction than any other close follower of Bomberg.