Hold the Front Page!: The Wit and Wisdom of Anne Scott-James

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