Frances Wright and the "Great Experiment"

by Margaret Lane

50 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

Margaret Winifred Lane (June 23, 1907 – February 14, 1994) was a British journalist, biographer and novelist, the author of more than two dozen books. She was the second wife of Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon.
She was the mother of writer Selina Hastings.

Lane was highly educated, attending St. Stephen's College and St. Hugh's College, Oxford.

After university, she worked as a reporter for the Daily Express from 1928 - 1931, and then as a special correspondent for the International News Service from 1931 - 1932. While there, she interviewed the gangster Al Capone.
From 1932 - 1938, she was a journalist for the Daily Mail, where she was the UK's highest paid woman journalist at the time.

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.

Lane wrote more than two dozen books, including novels, travelogues, and children's books.

Reviews

[KB · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good short volume full of useful factual info. However, some of the more problematic views & actions of Frances Wright seemed to be glossed over/not mentioned at all in the book which was disappointing.

[Alison Fiona Mckay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildly fascinating woman, she sounds more like a time traveller stuck in a past time.