First Lady of Fleet Street: A Biography of Rachel Beer

First Lady of Fleet Street: A Biography of Rachel Beer

by YehudaKoren (Author), EilatNegev (Author)

Synopsis

Rachel Beer was both a rebel and a pioneer. In the late 19th century, at a time when women were still denied the vote, she became the first woman ever to edit a national British newspaper - in fact two, The Sunday Times and the Observer. It was to be over eighty years before another woman took the helm of a Fleet Street paper. As a woman she was barred not only from frequenting the London Clubs that fed her rival male editors with political gossip, but also from the Press Gallery of the House of Commons. However, whilst other female journalists were restricted to frocks, frills and frippery, Rachel managed to raise her formidable voice on national and foreign political issues - including the notorious Dreyfus Affair - as well as on social and women's issues, often controversially. Aunt of the poet Siegfried, Rachel's family, the Sassoons, had made their fortune in Indian opium and cotton. Her marriage to Frederick Beer brought together two wealthy dynasties. It was also to bring Rachel strife and heartbreak - for while the Prime Minister, William Gladstone, attended the wedding, Frederick's father's decision to abandon the Jewish religion and baptize his son led to Rachel being disowned by many of her proudly Jewish family. Rachel anticipated her family's rage, but ultimately followed her heart, only for tragedy to strike when her beloved husband died and her family conspired to have her certified. Drawing on a wealth of original material, First Lady of Fleet Street paints a vivid picture of a remarkable woman and of the times in which she lived. It also provides an important history of two venerable Jewish families, their origins and their rise to eminence.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 526
Publisher: JR Books Ltd
Published: 24 Apr 2011

ISBN 10: 1906779198
ISBN 13: 9781906779191

Media Reviews
'It is an extraordinary story, all the more remarkable in that such a fascinating woman should be almost completely unknown. All credit to the authors for giving the first lady of Fleet Street the byline she deserves.' - Daisy Goodwin The Sunday Times 20110417 'An engaging tale' Financial Times 20110507 'A strange story of a remarkable and forward-thinking lady, for a time at the centre of the male-dominated world of Fleet Street.' - Rosie Boycott The Lady 20110517 'Negev and Koren have handsomely made up for the information deficit...this is the first look at the extraordinary Rachel Beer.' The Observer 20110605 'What they have achieved is to give this strange and rather tragic woman the place she deserves - one that has previously been denied or ignored - in the pantheon of British journalism.' The Literary Review 201107
Author Bio
Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev are the authors of In Our Hearts We Were Giants - a dwarf family's survival of the Holocaust, and Lover of Unreason - the life and tragic death of Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes' doomed love.