Valerie Grove (née Smith, born 11 May 1946)[1] is a British journalist and author, who worked for many years as a feature writer, interviewer and columnist for The Times newspaper.
[2] Her father, William Douglas "Doug" Smith (1916–73), was a cartoonist for the Shields Gazette and other newspapers.
[4][5] She joined the London Evening Standard in the year of her graduation, initially working on the "Londoner's Diary" column,[6] then as a feature writer, eventually becoming the newspaper's literary editor for two spells (1979–81 and 1984–87).
The volume contains interviews with prominent women of the time, married for at least 25 years and with three or more children.
[7] Grove is a biographer of the writers Dodie Smith (1996), Laurie Lee (1999) and John Mortimer (2007).