Candida Lycett Green

Candida Rose Lycett Green
Candida Lycett Green (left) unveiling a plaque commemorating her father, John Betjeman, at Marylebone Station in 2006
Candida Lycett Green (left) unveiling a plaque commemorating her father, John Betjeman, at Marylebone Station in 2006
BornCandida Rose Betjeman
(1942-09-22)22 September 1942
Dublin, Ireland
Died19 August 2014(2014-08-19) (aged 71)
England
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Spouse
(m. 1963)
Children5
RelativesSir John Betjeman (father)
Penelope Chetwode (mother)

Candida Rose Lycett Green (née Betjeman; 22 September 1942 – 19 August 2014) was a British author who wrote sixteen books including English Cottages, Goodbye London, The Perfect English House, Over the Hills and Far Away and The Dangerous Edge of Things. Her television documentaries included The Englishwoman and the Horse, and The Front Garden. Unwrecked England, based on a regular column of the same name she wrote for The Oldie[1] from 1992, was published in 2009.

Green has been described as "the finest writer of our time on the English countryside".[citation needed] She edited and introduced the letters and prose of her father John Betjeman which were published in three volumes. She was a commissioner of English Heritage for nine years and her proudest achievement was the role she played in the regeneration of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, Stoke-On-Trent.[citation needed]

She was a member of the Performing Rights Society through her writing of lyrics for songs and was a Contributing Editor to Vogue from 1987. She was part of the original team who started Private Eye. Nicky Haslam nominated Lycett Green as the living person he most admired ("beautiful, brave, strong, clever, loving and loved").[2]

  1. ^ The Oldie Magazine website, accessed 22 August 2014.
  2. ^ The Guardian; 26 October 2002.