Ann Jennifer Evelyn Elizabeth Ross (; 16 March 1916 – 10 December 2003) was a British literary muse who for a time financed '' The London Magazine''. She was the only child of Sir Geoffrey Fry, 1st Baronet and his wife Alathea Gardner. She grew up at Oare House, Wiltshire. Her father was private secretary to two prime ministers, and descended from the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family of cocoa manufacturers. Her mother was the daughter of Lord Burghclere. Alathea's sister was

Evelyn Gardner Evelyn Florence Margaret Winifred Gardiner (27 September 1903 – 11 March 1994) was the youngest child of Herbert Gardner, 1st Baron Burghclere, and the first wife of Evelyn Waugh. She was one of the Bright Young Things. Early life The Hon. Ev ...

, who married the writer Evelyn Waugh and was known as one of the Bright Young Things of

interwar London In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relati ...

. In 1942, already pregnant, Ann Fry married

Robert Heber-Percy Robert Vernon Heber-Percy (5 November 1911 – 29 October 1987), known for much of his life as "the Mad Boy", was "an English eccentric in the grand tradition". Early life Heber-Percy was born in 1911, the fourth and youngest son of Algernon Hu ...

, who had for the past decade been the boyfriend of the composer Lord Berners, and was known as "the Mad Boy". For two years she formed a '' ménage à trois'' with them at Faringdon House, Oxfordshire.Sofka Zinovieff. ''The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me'' (Jonathan Cape, 2014). They divorced in 1947. She loved and was loved by men such as Cyril Connolly, Henry Green, and the film maker

Michael Luke Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

. She next married, in 1949, the poet

Alan Ross Alan John Ross (6 May 1922 – 14 February 2001) was a British poet, writer, editor and publisher. Early years Ross was born in Calcutta, India, son of John Brackenridge Ross, CBE, a former Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve ( Supply and T ...

, editor of ''The London Magazine'', which she supported with her money and intellect. She championed Jean Rhys's novel '' Wide Sargasso Sea'' to Francis Wyndham. Her friends included " ir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

... Anthony and Violet Powell, Heywood and

Anne Hill Anne Hill () is the most prominent hill on Radian Ridge in the Royal Society Range of Victoria Land. It rises to at the east side of Lava Tongue Pass. It was named after Anne C. Wright (later Anne Wright-Grassham), a geologist with, firstly, the ...

, ndPrim Rollo, who married the actor David Niven". She volunteered with the Prisoners' Wives Service, which Cressida Connolly links to her ancestor Elizabeth Fry, the great social reformer. Her daughter with Heber-Percy, Victoria Gala Heber-Percy, was born in 1947. She married the British composer, musician and inventor Peter Zinovieff. Their children included the author Sofka Zinovieff, who in 2014 wrote a memoir about her grandparents and Lord Berners at Faringdon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Jennifer 1916 births 2003 deaths Fry family 20th-century British women Muses British magazine people Daughters of baronets 20th-century English businesspeople