{{Short description|British journalist, biographer and novelist (1907–1994)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{infobox writer |name=Margaret Lane |image=Margaret Lane.jpg |caption=Lane in 1935 |birth_date={{birth date|1907|6|23|df=y}} |death_date={{death date and age|1994|2|14|1907|6|23|df=y}} |death_place=Southampton, Hampshire, England |occupation={{flatlist| *Journalist *biographer *novelist }} |nationality=British |alma_mater=St Stephen's College, Broadstairs<br>St Hugh's College, Oxford |spouse={{marriage|Bryan Wallace|1934|1939|end}}<br>{{marriage|Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon|1944|1990|end=d}} |children=2, including Selina |parents=Harry George Lane<br>Edith Webb }} [[File:Memorial to John Francis Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon.jpg|thumb|Memorial in St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch]] '''Margaret Winifred Lane''' (23 June 1907 – 14 February 1994) was a British journalist, biographer and novelist, the author of more than two dozen books. She was the second wife of Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon.
==Early life== Margaret Lane was born on 23 June 1907, the only child of Edith (née Webb), daughter of a glass dealer, and Harry George Lane, a newspaper editor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/55086|pages=ref:odnb/55086|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|place=Oxford|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55086|access-date=2021-09-12|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.}}</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/21/obituaries/margaret-lane-86-british-writer-on-beatrix-potter-and-the-brontes.html|title=Margaret Lane, 86, British Writer On Beatrix Potter and the Brontes|first= Eric|last= Pace|date=21 February 1994|website=The New York Times|accessdate=29 November 2017}}</ref> She was educated at St Stephen's College (sisters of St John Baptist)<!-- previous detail not mentioned in the NYT source. --> and St Hugh's College, Oxford.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>
==Career== After university, she worked as a reporter for the ''Daily Express'', from 1928 to 1931, and then as a special correspondent for the International News Service from 1931 to 1932, while there she interviewed the gangster Al Capone. From 1932 to 1938, she was a journalist for the ''Daily Mail,'' where she was the UK's highest-paid woman journalist.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Jenkins">{{cite news|last=Jenkins|first=Elizabeth|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-margaret-lane-1394635.html|title=Obituary: Margaret Lane|work=The Independent|date=17 February 1994|accessdate=29 November 2017}}</ref>
Lane wrote two biographies of Beatrix Potter, ''The Tale of Beatrix Potter: a Biography'' in 1946, and ''The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter'' in 1978. In 1984, the BBC produced a two-part television dramatisation of Potter's life based on Lane's books, ''The Tale of Beatrix Potter'' with Penelope Wilton in the lead role, that was "praised as a simple yet intense story with just the right touches of unflinching reserve."<ref name="nytimes.com" /> Lane also wrote books about the Brontë sisters (1953) and Samuel Johnson (1975).<ref name="nytimes.com" /><ref name="Jenkins"/>
In all, Lane wrote more than two dozen books, including novels, travelogues and children's books.<ref name="nytimes.com" /> Her trilogy about expats in Tangiers - ''A Night at Sea'', ''A Smell of Burning'' and ''The Day of the Feast'' - was highly praised by Colin Wilson and others.<ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/margaret-lane/a-night-at-sea/ ''A Night at Sea'', Kirkus Reviews]</ref>
==Personal life== In 1934, she married Bryan Wallace, a film screenwriter and son of the writer Edgar Wallace. Their marriage was dissolved in 1939. Lane's biography of Edgar Wallace was published in 1938.<ref name="Jenkins"/>
On 1 February 1944, she married Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon (1901–1990), who had divorced his first wife Cristina (who then married Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford) the previous year.<ref name="Jenkins"/> They had two daughters, the writer Selina Hastings (Lady Selina Shirley Hastings, born 1945), and Lady Caroline Harriet Hastings (born 1946).<ref name="Jenkins"/>
She died in Southampton on 14 February 1994.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Jenkins"/>
==Selected publications== * ''Faith, Hope, No Charity'' (1935)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''At Last, the Island'' (1937)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Edgar Wallace, the Biography of a Phenomenon'' (1938)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Walk Into My Parlour'' (1941)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Where Helen Lies'' (1944)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''The Tale of Beatrix Potter: a Biography'' (1946)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''The Brontë Story'' (1953)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''A Crown of Convolvulus'' (1954)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''A Calabash of Diamonds'' (1961)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Life With Ionides'' (1963)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''A Night at Sea'' (1965)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''A Smell of Burning'' (1966)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Purely for Pleasure'' (1966)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''The Day of the Feast'' (1968)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''Samuel Johnson and His World'' (1975)<ref name="nytimes.com" /> * ''The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter'' (1978)<ref name="nytimes.com" />
==References== {{Portal|Children's literature}} {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{OL author|OL1035876A}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Margaret}} Category:1907 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century British journalists Category:British biographers Huntingdon Category:Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Category:British children's writers Category:British women biographers Category:20th-century English nobility Category:Member of the Women's Press Club, London Category:20th-century British women novelists Category:20th-century British women journalists