Anne Grey de Courcy ( née Barrett; born December 1927) [1] is an English biographer and journalist, including as women's editor on the London Evening News, as a columnist for the London Evening Standard and as a feature writer for the Daily Mail. [2]
Early life and education
Anne Grey Barrett was born in December 1927, daughter of Major John Lionel Mackenzie Barrett (d. 1940), [3] of The Tallat, Northleach, Gloucestershire, an officer in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, and Evelyn Kathleen Frances (1898–1987), daughter of Thomas Stewart Porter, of Clogher Park, County Tyrone (he took his mother's family name, Porter, instead of his father's, Ellison-Macartney, as an heir of the Porter family of Belle Isle, County Longford) [4] Her mother was a descendant of Sir Alan Bellingham, 3rd Baronet. A brother, Christopher, was born in 1930. [5] [6] [7] She was educated at Wroxall Abbey, in Warwickshire. [7]
Career
De Courcy worked for the London Evening News as women's editor in the 1970s. In 1980, de Courcy joined the London Evening Standard as a columnist. Between 1982 and 2003, she was a feature writer for the Daily Mail.
Since 1969, she has produced a number of books, including biographies and social histories. [7]
Personal life
In 1951, she married Michael Charles Cameron Claremont Constantine de Courcy, a journalist and RAF officer, half-brother of John de Courcy, 35th Baron Kingsale. He was killed in a flying accident in 1953, aged 22. [6] She then married in 1959 barrister Robert Armitage (1921–1998) of a family of landed gentry Milnsbridge House, Huddersfield; they had three children. [8] [9] [10]
Bibliography
- Kitchens (1969)
- Plan your Home: Starting from Scratch (1970)
- Making Room at the Top (1974)
- A Guide to Modern Manners (1985)
- 1939: The Last Season (1989)
- Circe: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry (1992)
- The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters (2000) - Irene, Cynthia and Alexandra
- Diana Mosley (2003)
- Debs at War 1939–1945 (2005)
- Snowdon: The Biography (2008)
- The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj (2012)
- Margot at War: Love and Betrayal in Downing Street 1912–1916 (2014)
- The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York (2017)
- Chanel's Riviera: Life, Love and the Struggle for Survival on the Côte d'Azur, 1930–1944 (2019)
- Five Love Affairs and a Friendship – The Paris Life of Nancy Cunard, Icon of the Jazz Age (2022)
References
- ^ "Anne de Courcy Limited". Companies London.
- ^ Peter Stanford (29 October 2014). "Meet Margot Asquith – a prime minister's wife who was more vilified than Cherie..." The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
- ^ "Wills and Estates". The Herald. Melbourne. 4 September 1940. p. 10 – via Trove.
- ^ A. C. Fox-Davies, ed. (1912). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. Harrison & Sons. p. 571.
- ^ Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Dean & Son Ltd, 1931, p. cv
- ^ a b Charles Mosley, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Vol. 2 (107th ed.). p. 2177.
- ^ a b c Contemporary Authors, vol. 121, Gale Group, 2004, p. 111
- ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 8th ed., vol. 1, ed. Ashworth P. Burke, Harrison & Sons, 1894, p. 40
- ^ "Armitage of High Royd and Milnsbridge House", 23 July 2015, Landed Families of Britain by Nicholas Kingsley
- ^ "Kingsale, Baron (I, c.1340)". cracroftspeerage.co.uk.
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