Miriam Gross, Lady Owen is a literary editor and writer. She was the deputy literary editor of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' from 1969-81, the women's editor of ''The Observer'' from 1981-84, the arts editor of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' from 1986-91, and the literary editor of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' from 1991-2005. She served as senior editor (and co-founder) of '' Standpoint'' magazine from 2008 to 2011, and now serves on their advisory board. Writing in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' (6 June 1988), the historian Paul Johnson said that "the beautiful and elegant Miriam Gross is queen of the lit eds." From 1986-88, she edited

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

's ''Book Choice''. She is also the editor of two collections of essays, ''The World of George Orwell'' (1971) and ''The World of Raymond Chandler'' (1977). While at ''The Observer'', she conducted a series of interviews, with, among others, the poet

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

, playwright Harold Pinter, thriller writer

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

, painters

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

and

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

, Nobel Prize–winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, novelist

Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell' ...

, philosopher and historian Sir Isaiah Berlin, philosopher

A.J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) a ...

, and Svetlana Stalin. (The interviews with Larkin, Bacon, Pinter and Powell were republished in her 2012 memoir, ''A Sense of Belonging: An Almost English Life''; the interview with Larkin was republished in Larkin's ''Required Writing'' and that with Pinter in Ian Smith, ed., ''Pinter in the Theatre''.) Gross has contributed to ''The Spectator'', as the magazine's diarist, and has written an occasional column for the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

''. She has also served as a judge on the Booker prize and on the George Orwell memorial prize. As mayor of London,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

commissioned Miriam Gross to write a policy paper on failing literacy in London schools. She is the author of a memoir, ''An Almost English Life: Literary, and Not so Literary Recollections''.

Family and education

She was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Her Jewish parents,

Kurt May Kurt May (1896–1992) was director of the United Restitution Organization, which assisted victims of Nazism, from its inception in 1948 to his retirement at age 91, in 1988. For more than forty years he played a role in efforts to obtain compensat ...

and Vera May (née Feinberg), fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, but two of her grandparents as well as many other relatives in Germany who didn't escape were murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. She grew up in Jerusalem, Switzerland and England. She was educated at

Dartington Hall School Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...

and at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

where she read English literature at St Anne's College. She was married to the literary and theatrical critic

John Gross John Gross FRSL (12 March 1935 – 10 January 2011) was an eminent English man of letters. A leading intellectual, writer, anthologist, and critic, ''The Guardian'' (in a tribute titled "My Hero") and ''The Spectator'' were among several pu ...

(1965–88). The couple had two children,

Tom Gross Tom Gross is a British-born journalist, international affairs commentator, and human rights campaigner specializing in the Middle East. Gross was formerly a foreign correspondent for the London ''Sunday Telegraph'' and ''New York Daily News''. He ...

and Susanna Gross. Since 1993, she has been married to Sir Geoffrey Owen, the former editor of the ''Financial Times''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Miriam Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford British journalists English women journalists English writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British literary editors English Jews English people of German-Jewish descent English women non-fiction writers People educated at Dartington Hall School Wives of knights