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Anne Eleanor Scott-James (Lady Lancaster), (born April 5, 1913), is an English journalist and author. She has been one of Britain's first women career journalists, editors and columnists, and latterly author of a series of gardening books. Educated at Oxford and coming from a long line of critics and writers, Anne Scott-James joined the staff of Vogue in 1934, initially as a secretary, but soon as a columnist. In 1939 she married the editor and publisher Derek Verschoyle, but the two were soon divorced. On the outbreak of war she joined the staff of Picture Post was its Women's Editor from 1941 to 1945. At Picture Post she met and married the journalist Macdonald Hastings. They had two children, one of whom is the journalist and former editor of the Daily Telegraph, Max Hastings. From 1945 to 1951 Scott-James was the editor of the British edition of Harper's Bazaar, during which time she commissioned work from such figures as Cecil Beaton, John Betjeman and Elizabeth David. She was later woman's Editor for the Sunday Express (1953-57) and columnist for the Daily Mail (1960-68). In 1964 she succeeded Nancy Spain as a panellist on the popular BBC radio panel game, My Word! . She herself was succeeded by Antonia Fraser in 1978. Her marriage to Macdonald Hastings failed and in the early sixties she met the writer and illustrator Sir Osbert Lancaster. They were married in 1967. In the late 1960s she left the world of journalism and embarked on a new stage in her career, gardening writing. Her books, The Pleasure Garden (jointly written with Lancaster), Down to Earth, and Sissinghurst - the Making of a Garden are regarded as classics of their genre.
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