Anne Scott-James (1913–2009)

Anne Scott-James was born in London, a daughter of the Liberal journalist and literary critic R. A. Scott-James, later editor of the London Mercury; her mother was also a journalist who wrote a weekly London Letter for the Yorkshire Post. Anne was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School (where the music teacher was Gustav Holst) and Oxford University, where she gained a First in the Honour Moderations exams but did not complete her degree. In 1934, she joined the staff of Vogue Magazine, initially as a secretary and rose to become beauty editor. In 1939, she married Derek Verschoyle, a journalist and publisher, but they soon divorced. At the outbreak of World War II, she joined the staff of Picture Post and served as women's editor from 1941 to 1945. While at Picture Post, she met and married journalist Macdonald Hastings. They had two children, Max Hastings and Clare Hastings, both of whom became authors. From 1945 to 1951, Anne was the editor of the British Harper's Bazaar, and commissioned work from such figures as Cecil Beaton, John Betjeman and Elizabeth David. She published a semi-autobiographical novel about life in high fashion, In the Mink, in 1952. The following year, she broke into the male-dominated Fleet Street by becoming the woman's editor for the Sunday Express and then was a widely-read columnist for the Daily Mail from 1960 to 1968. In 1964, she succeeded Nancy Spain as a panellist on the popular BBC radio comic quiz game, My Word! Her marriage to Macdonald Hastings ended in the early 1960s, and in 1967 she married writer and illustrator Sir Osbert Lancaster.

In the late 1960s, she left journalism and embarked on a new career as a gardening writer. Her six books, including Down to Earth (1971), Sissinghurst: The Making of a Garden (1974), and The Pleasure Garden, jointly written with Lancaster (1977), are regarded as classics of the genre. She also published an autobiography, Sketches from a Life, in 1993.