Dee Wells


Alberta Wells, also Alberta Constance Wells, Alberta Chapman. Dee Wells or Alberta Constance Ayer, Lady Ayer, was an American journalist, novelist, and broadcaster.

Life

Wells was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1925. She was named Alberta Constance Chapman. She served in the Canadian Army before marrying a diplomat named Al Wells. They married in Paris where she had been working at the US embassy. They spent two years in Burma before the marriage ended amicably. The daughter from this marriage was Gully Wells, who became a writer.
She met the academic A. J. Ayer in 1956, and despite his infidelity she married him in 1960. At this time she had been the books editor of the Daily Express for two years. During the 1960s she was frequently on TV including as a regular on Three After Six. The three in question were Benny Green, Alan Brien and herself. The programme would discuss the news and current affairs. In 1965, the head of ITV had to apologise to the Police after her suggestion that they might let an art thief "fall down some stairs". She wrote her forthright opinions for The Sun newspaper during the 1960s.
In 1973 her own novel Jane was published. It sold two million copies as it described the affairs of the eponymous heroine. She and her husband took up different interests and this included different partners. She moved to New York with a designer named Hylan Booker, whilst her former husband married Vanessa Lawson.
In 1989 she remarried Ayer; he died shortly afterwards. She died in 2003. She was survived by two children, a daughter by Al Wells and a son by A. J. Ayer.