Margaret Lane


Margaret Lane was a British journalist, biographer and novelist, the author of more than two dozen books in total, and the second wife of Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon.

Early life

Margaret Lane was born on 23 June 1907, the daughter of Harry George Lane, a journalist. She was educated at St Stephens College and St Hugh's College, Oxford.

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, and as a journalist for the Daily Mail from 1932 to 1938.
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, that was "praised as a simple yet intense story with just the right touches of unflinching reserve." Lane also wrote books about Samuel Johnson and the Brontë sisters.
In total, Lane wrote more than two dozen books, including novels, travelogues and children's books.

Personal life

In 1934, she married Bryan Wallace, son of the writer Edgar Wallace; the marriage was dissolved in 1939. Lane's biography of Edgar Wallace was published in 1938.
In 1944, she married Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, who had divorced his first wife Cristina the previous year. They had two daughters, the writer Selina Hastings, and Lady Caroline Harriet Hastings.
She died in Southampton on 14 February 1994.

Selected publications