Overview

In 1953 pioneering journalist Anne Scott-James started to write a weekly column for the UK's Sunday Express newspaper. The Anne Scott-James Page set the bar for a new way of writing. She perfected the art of the short, sharp column--and many of the topics she covered are equally on trend today. The column was filled with her views on children, food, interiors, fashion, beauty, travel, and anything else that took her fancy. Political views might be squashed between a piece on eyebrow tweezing and an opinion on swimsuit lines. As Anne's daughter, Clare Hastings, writes, I have often thought that with a couple of name changes, Anne's columns could be placed in a newspaper today and readers would find it hard to tell the difference --except that few journalists now, few journalists ever, could match Anne's mixture of intelligence, wit and style--or her sheer funniness. She was a great believer in entertaining her reader. In Hold the Front Page, Scott-James's Sunday Express 1954-1968 columns are collected together with commentary from her daughter, writer Clare Hastings, to provide a fascinating insight into the public and private life of the first female star of London's Fleet Street. Read less

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9781910258712

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In Hold The Front Page Clare Hastings has compiled a warm hearted tribute to her mother the journalist and gardener Anne Scott-James. Anne, whom I knew well as a country neighbour was a beautiful and formidable woman, a pioneer in the then male-dominated world of Fleet Street, whose newspaper columns, reprinted here are still relevant and topical today. Interspersed with examples of her journalism, Clare gives us a touching memoir of her remarkable mother, like herself strong on common sense and short on whingeing. -- Richard Ingrams

Clare Hastings' deadpan and funny reminiscences of her mother are what elevates this book above a pleasingly nostalgic read. * Daily Mail * In Hold The Front Page Clare Hastings has compiled a warm hearted tribute to her mother the journalist and gardener Anne Scott-James. Anne, whom I knew well as a country neighbour was a beautiful and formidable woman, a pioneer in the then male-dominated world of Fleet Street, whose newspaper columns, reprinted here are still relevant and topical today. Interspersed with examples of her journalism, Clare gives us a touching memoir of her remarkable mother, like herself strong on common sense and short on whingeing. -- Richard Ingrams

Clare Hastings' deadpan and funny reminiscences of her mother are what elevates this book above a pleasingly nostalgic read. * Daily Mail * In Hold The Front Page Clare Hastings has compiled a warm hearted tribute to her mother the journalist and gardener Anne Scott-James. Anne, whom I knew well as a country neighbour was a beautiful and formidable woman, a pioneer in the then male-dominated world of Fleet Street, whose newspaper columns, reprinted here are still relevant and topical today. Interspersed with examples of her journalism, Clare gives us a touching memoir of her remarkable mother, like herself strong on common sense and short on whingeing. -- Richard Ingrams Hold the Front Page!, compiled by her daughter Clare Hastings, is a selection of Scott-James's articles (many of them hilarious, all of them sprucely professional) interspersed with Hastings's affectionate but uncloying memoir. It conveys a completely vanished world. -- AN Wilson * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Information

Clare Hastings started her career in the fashion department of Harpers & Queen magazine, before leaving to work freelance as a stylist and later as a costume designer. Thirty years later, Clare changed direction to work freelance alongside her daughter, Calypso, in The Indytute. Clare Hastings started her working life at Harpers & Queen magazine, before leaving to work as a stylist and then as a costume designer. Thirty years later Clare changed direction to work alongside her daughter, Calypso, in The Indytute. She is the author of Gardening Notes from a Late Bloomer and The House in Little Chelsea. Anne Scott-James (1913-2009) was Women's Editor of Picture Post during the Second World War and Editor of Harper's Bazaar from 1945-51. She wrote 'The Anne Scott-James Page' for the Sunday Express from 1953-57 and was a columnist for the Daily Mail from 1960-68.She also wrote for Vogue and Queen and was the author of many books including In the Mink, Down to Earth and Gardening Letters to my Daughter. She was married three times, first briefly to Derek Verschoyle, second to journalist and broadcaster Macdonald Hastings, with whom she had a son, Max, and a daughter, Clare, and third to cartoonist and writer Osbert Lancaster. Clare Hastings started her working life at Harpers & Queen magazine, before leaving to work as a stylist and then as a costume designer. Thirty years later Clare changed direction to work alongside her daughter, Calypso, in The Indytute. She is the author of Gardening Notes from a Late Bloomer and The House in Little Chelsea. Anne Scott-James (1913-2009) was Women's Editor of Picture Post during the Second World War and Editor of Harper's Bazaar from 1945-51. She wrote 'The Anne Scott-James Page' for the Sunday Express from 1953-57 and was a columnist for the Daily Mail from 1960-68.She also wrote for Vogue and Queen and was the author of many books including In the Mink, Down to Earth and Gardening Letters to my Daughter. She was married three times, first briefly to Derek Verschoyle, second to journalist and broadcaster Macdonald Hastings, with whom she had a son, Max, and a daughter, Clare, and third to cartoonist and writer Osbert Lancaster.

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