Katharine Whitehorn

Katharine Whitehorn

Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn (born 1928) is a British journalist, writer, and columnist known for her wit and humour and as a keen observer of women in their times. She was educated at Roedean School, Brighton and Newnham College, Cambridge. She was a lowly sub-editor for a women's magazine in 1956 when Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy asked her to model for him. She caught a big break, then, when he photographed her for a story on loneliness in London, and one Hardy photo of her sitting by a fire with a cigarette, as if thinking to write an article instead of being lonely, became an advertisement for the energy drink Lucozade. She wrote for Picture Post just before it closed, then worked as a columnist for The Observer in London from 1960 until 1996. She also served as the rector of the University of St Andrews from 1982-1985. Since 1997 she has written a monthly column for Saga Magazine. She was married to novelist Gavin Lyall from 1958 until his death in 2003. They have two children

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