Elaine Dundy (1921-2008) grew up in New York City and Long Island. After graduating from Sweet Briar College in 1943, she worked as an actress in Paris and, later, London, where she met her future husband, the theater critic Kenneth Tynan.

Dundy wrote three novels, The Dud Avocado (1958), The Old Man and Me (1964), and The Injured Party (1974); a play, My Place (produced in 1962); biographies of Elvis Presley and the actor Peter Finch; a study of Ferriday, Louisiana; and a memoir, Life Itself!

RACHEL COOKE was born in Sheffield 4 July 1969. A journalist for the Observer for twenty-five years, she reviewed books, interviewed celebrities, politicians and writers, championed graphic novels, and wrote a weekly TV column for the New Statesman. In 2006, Rachel Cooke was named Interviewer of the Year at the British Press Awards.

Her first book, Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties published by Virago in 2013, was followed by Kitchen Person: Notes on Cooking & Eating, a collection of her pieces from her Observer column, published by Weidenfeld in 2023. The Virago Book of Friendship was published in hardback in 2024. All three of her books reflect the passion and the wit of a great and beguiling writer. Clever, wide-ranging and inspiring, her knowledge and sheer appetite for life was shared with millions of readers.

Rachel Cooke died in London on 14 November 2025 aged 56.