My mother, Monica Foot, a press and television journalist, who has died aged 80, was an anarchist, a feminist and a trade union activist. In the early 70s she worked for Weekend World, the London Weekend TV current affairs programme. She was born in Castle Bromwich, to the east of Birmingham, to Robert Beckinsale, a lecturer in geography, and his wife, Monica (nee Crump), a teacher and writer. To avoid the blitz, the family moved to Oxfordshire when Monica was a baby, and her father taught at Oxford University. The marriage collapsed in 1966 while Monica was pregnant with her second son, Matt, and she moved to London to work as a journalist.

Source: The Guardian June 06, 2019 17:15 UTC