Dorothy Langsford was the youngest of seven children of William Arthur Langsford, a Methodist minister, and his wife Helen. The family moved frequently as her father was moved from one parish to another.
She attended the Methodist Ladies' College (now Annesley) as a day student, boarding with her grandfather, the Hon. Alfred Catt. She lived with her parents until they died, and the backgrounds of her stories were much influenced by her life in the parsonage. Her published books were written in her late 1920s and 1930s and were always based on events and localities with which she was familiar.
When her father retired they lived at Brighton, and later at Prospect. Dorothy worked at the Methodist Church's Epworth Book Depot in Pirie St. Here she met and married Thomas Edwards, a haberdashery merchant, in about 1946, when she was fifty. Edwards travelled throughout Australia on business, and Dorothy, who loved travel, often went with him on local trips, doing the driving. She also accompanied him on two trips to the eastern states, which she described and illustrated with amusing sketches in her travel diaries. Her sister Hilda lived with them, and when Tom died the sisters moved to Resthaven, Mitcham, which was just opening. Dorothy was 65 when she moved to Resthaven, and lived there until her death at the age of 95.
Dorothy wrote all her life, and was publishing fairy stories in a weekly newspaper at the age of eleven. These were later published in her The Water Babies and Other Stories (1913). She enjoyed sketching, and illustrated some of her stories, sometimes painting them in watercolour. As a girl she had painting lessons from James Ashton. She wrote various small books, including some on croquet. She wrote for the Children's Hour, a publication distributed through the schools, and had several stories serialized in newspapers. She was a croquet player, and was involved with the Girl Guides movement.
