Lady Anne Catherine Dorothy Hill (née Gathorne-Hardy; 1911–2006) was a British bookseller and writer.
Life
She was born in 1911, the daughter of
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 3rd
Earl of Cranbrook
Earl of Cranbrook, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1892 for Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, Baron Medway. The family seat is Great Glemham House, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. The title remains held by t ...
and Lady Dorothy Montagu Boyle.
In 1936, she started working with
George Heywood Hill
George Heywood Hill (29 July 1906 – 1986) was a British bookseller, and the founder of the Mayfair bookshop Heywood Hill in 1936.
Early life
He was born in Chelsea, London on 29 July 1906, the son of Major George Bernard Hill OBE (1874-1961), a ...
, and together they launched
Heywood Hill
Heywood Hill is a bookshop at 10 Curzon Street in the Mayfair district of London.
History
The shop was opened by George Heywood Hill on 3 August 1936, with the help of Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy, who would later become his wife.
For the last ...
, which still operates as an
independent bookshop in the central London district of
Mayfair. In 1938, the pair married; he was a cousin of her sister-in-law Fidelity Cranbrook (née Seebohm, second wife of the fourth Earl).
She had previously been engaged to
James Lees-Milne
(George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extensi ...
, an expert in
English country houses, and they remained on good terms.
The Hills lived in Warwick Avenue,
Maida Vale
Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district consisting of the northern part of Paddington in West London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale is ...
, and later in Richmond.
They had two daughters.
Works
She researched her family tree and became intrigued by
Captain Edward Trelawny, a friend of the poets
Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
and
Shelley. She published ''Trelawny's strange relations'' in 1977. Her account of running the bookshop while her husband was away at war appeared in print as ''A Bookseller's War'' (1997), mainly composed of letters between the couple.
Family
Her brothers were
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, 4th Earl of Cranbrook, booksellers
Edward and
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, and Anthony, whose son was the writer
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933 – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, ''Half an Arc ...
.
[Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 1, p. 942]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Anne
1911 births
2006 deaths
British booksellers
Daughters of British earls
Businesspeople from London
20th-century English businesspeople