Pamela Joan Vandyke-Price née Pamela Joan Walford) (21 March 1923 – 12 January 2014) was a British

Wine taster Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...

and writer. She is credited as the first British woman to write about wine and spirits. She was known for her strong opinions.

Life

Vandyke-Price was an only child born in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

(one source says Leicester). Her mother, Florence Amélie née Halliday, was French and her father, Harry Norman Walford was a manager in a watch making business. She read English at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, attending lectures held by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

and

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

. She went on to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. During her time there, she met Alan Vandyke Price a student doctor and her future husband. They married in 1950 and she became a journalist at Home and Garden. Her husband died in 1955 from hepatitis which he had caught as part of his job. She consoled herself by entering a platonic relationship with Allan Sichel, who was the owner of a wine company and would become her mentor on wine-making and -tasting. In 1966 she wrote the book, "France - a Food and Wine Guide". It was not her first book but this one sold well. She was a wine writer. Credited as the first UK woman to write about wine and spirits. She was the editor of

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

's Wine and Food Magazine until it changed ownership and then she went to write for

the Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

. She was the first recipient of the 1971

Glenfiddich awards The Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards were intended to recognize achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting on the subjects of food and drink. The awards had been sponsored since 1972 by William Grant & Sons, a family-owned Scottish distil ...

, which she was granted again in 1973. After twelve years at the Times she was sacked. At some point she started the Circle of Wine Writers. In 1975 she wrote "The Taste of Wine". In 1980 she published "The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs" and the following year she was knighted when the French government gave her the Order of Agricultural Merit. She died on 12 January 2014 in London leaving behind instructions of who not to invite to her funeral.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vandyke-Price, Pamela British writers British women writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford 1923 births 2014 deaths People from Coventry