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.

Her book "Cooking in a Bedsitter" (originally "Kitchen in the corner: A complete guide to bedsitter cookery"), first published in 1961 and a classic of its kind, remained in print for thirty-five years.

Quotes

:"Outside every thin girl is a fat man, trying to get in."

:"The trouble with so many born-again people is that you wish they hadn’t been born the first time."

:"When it comes to housework the one thing no book of household management can ever tell you is how to begin. Or maybe I mean why."

:"I am all for people having their heart in the right place; but the right place for a heart is not inside the head."

:"From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it."

:"I am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool."

:"The best careers advice to give to the young is 'Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.'"

:"Hats divide generally into three classes: offensive hats, defensive hats, and shrapnel."

:"Americans, indeed, often seem to be so overwhelmed by their children that they’ll do anything for them except stay married to the co-producer."

:"An office party is not, as is sometimes supposed, the Managing Director’s chance to kiss the tea-girl. It is the tea-girl’s chance to kiss the Managing Director (however bizarre an ambition this may seem to anyone who has seen the Managing Director face on). Bringing down the mighty from their seats is an agreeable and necessary pastime, but no one supposes that the mighty, having struggled so hard to get seated, will enjoy the dethronement."

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7600357.stm] An article in which Whitehorn outlines her economic philosophy