Margaret Lane; Biographer

Margaret Lane, 86, biographer of authors Beatrix Potter, Samuel Johnson and the Bronte sisters. After studying at Oxford University, she became one of the first women reporters on London’s Fleet Street newspaper row in 1928. She wrote for the Daily Express, the Daily Mail and for the International News Service in New York before turning to books. In addition to biographies, she wrote four novels, including “Faith, Hope, No Charity” and “A Night at Sea,” and several other books. She was president of London’s Women’s Press Club from 1958 to 1960 and headed the Dickens Fellowship literary society, the Johnson Society, the Bronte Society and the Jane Austen Society. On Feb. 14 in Southampton, England.