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

by Anne Scott-James, Clare Hastings

Overview

In 1953 pioneering journalist Anne Scott-James started to write a weekly column for the Sunday Express newspaper. ‘The Anne Scott-James Page’ set the bar for a new way of writing. Scott-James perfected the art of the short, sharp column – and many of the topics she covered are equally on-trend today. She cogently expressed her views on men, children, fashion, beauty, food, interiors, travel, and anything else that took her fancy. Political opinions might be squashed between thoughts on eyebrow tweezing and a piece on swimsuit lines. Scott-James was a great believer in entertaining her readers, and her columns are sharp, witty, to the point, often very funny, sometimes very moving. In Hold the Front Page! a selection of the Sunday Express columns is brought together with a commentary by her daughter, writer Clare Hastings, and with photographs from the Scott-James/Hastings family albums and drawings by Osbert Lancaster, Scott-James’s third husband, to provide a fascinating insight into the 1950s – and into the public and private life of one of the most celebrated columnists of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910258712
Publisher:	Pimpernel Press
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

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, including to journalist and broadcaster Macdonald Hastings, with whom she had a son, Max, and a daughter, Clare.

Table of Contents

Why Write About Anne? 8

Anne Scott-James Timeline 12

The Anne Scott-James Page 14

Introducing Anne Scott-James 18

The Woman's Angle - Is It A Fleet Street Myth? 18

Anne and Health 20

How's Your Hypochondria? 24

Equality from Doctors 25

Anne and Beauty 26

You Too Can Be Beautiful with These Gimmicks 30

Would You Like to Buy Yourself a New Face? 32

Agony, But Worth It 33

Anne and Fashion 34

It Doesn't Make Sense 40

I'll Champion the Fashion Faker 41

Give Me One Wish and I'll have the Shops from New York 42

Unfair to a favourite 42

A Dark Challenger … Comes Into Your Life 43

The Worst-Dressed Women in the World 44

Anne and Common Sense 46

Personal Poser of the Week - The Lady Gets a Wink from her Past 50

The Topic I'm Sick of 52

Beware the Voice of the Viper 54

Am I Wrong to Want to be Alone? 55

A Plague on All Girls Who Play at Working 56

Callousness 58

Charm - Is Not Enough 59

Have You a Common Streak? 60

Be Calm - Or Try To Be 62

My Dream - Is it possible? 62

Jamboree - Your View? 63

Anne and Men 64

Romantic - And Wrong 69

I Have Never Been Kissed on the Toes 70

I Know What Makes Tired Businessmen Tired 71

Your Husband - Don't Grumble 73

I Know It's A Wicked Question … But Would You Do All This for a Man? 74

Mad Dogs And … 75

Why Be Shocked When Girls Choose Husbands Over Fifty? 76

Men Are So Awful in Boats - But I'll Sail Again 78

Consider: Would You Marry Again? 79

The Truth about Husbands 80

Anne and Interior Decoration 82

Chilly? 87

I Say Scrap Your Dining Room 88

Artist with an Eye on the World 89

All Mod Cons with a Robot Thrown In 90

Best Small Pleasure of the Week 91

Roses, Gold Stars, and Even a Tree of Heaven for Mr Wyatt 92

The Underground is Working for Me 94

Anne and Food 96

Waiter - Bring on the Roast Fork 101

A Memo from Paris 102

We Really Had Gravy Soup 104

Just Cut The Cackle 105

Anne and Leisure 106

The U-Cult That Will Drive You Crazy 110

Oh, How I Loathe Weekends 112

Go Jump Off the Pier 114

In Anger 115

Fights, Jealousy, but They Still Loved … 116

Life with a Genius 117

Tee Western Goes Boom 118

What Fun! See How Our Idols Are Toppling 119

Anne and Parties 120

How Often Do You Really Ask People In? 124

How to Make the Grade as a Social Climber 126

Tapped at the Party 127

Give That Do-It-Yourself Party the Luxury Touch 128

Anne and Mothering 130

Children: Truth Versus Tact 133

Unemotional 133

Never Underestimate the Power of the Child 134

Memo to car men 134

I'm Fond of Children - But This Cult of Mother Earth 135

Why She's Having her Baby at Home 136

Postscript: When will a husband shop and like it? 137

Warning - To Mothers 138

Those Pills - Children Too 138

What a Wonderful Holiday - Next Time I'll Go to Siberia 139

Holiday Quotes 141

Anne and Domestics 142

Nanny 146

That Sounds Like Mummy Shouting 148

Anne and Children's Parties 150

You are Montgomery and This Is Alamein 154

Note written a year later 155

Anne and Pets 156

Well, I Never Thought I'd Fall for a Budgie! 160

Anne and Christmas 162

Buy Me a Useless Present - and Make it a Surprise! 164

Why Don't Relatives Leave Us Alone? 166

No, I Don't Want a Dustbin for Christmas 168

Crackers - Better Couplets 169

Anne and Education 170

Curtain Up 174

Tricky 174

Who Would You Like for Your Mother - Dr Edith Or Me? 175

Anne and Teenagers 178

Anne and Travel 183

America - Always Something New To See 188

This is Paris 188

Travel without tears 189

Oh, the Surprises When You Travel 190

Give me a Dream Island 191

They Talk with Tears in This Shadow City 192

Anne and Gardening 194

Wry note 199

Anne and Religion 200

Anne and The Last Word 204

Index 206

Acknowledgements 208

Editorial Reviews

"Clare Hastings' deadpan and funny reminiscences of her mother are what elevates this book above a pleasingly nostalgic read." —Constance Craig Smith, 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, Journalist, co-founder and former editor of Private Eye magazine


"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, The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher