Pamela Vandyke Price

Pamela Joan Vandyke-Price née Pamela Joan Walford) (March 21, 1923 – 2014) was a British Wine taster and writer. Credited as the first UK woman to write about wine and spirits. She worked for the Times the twelve years and was sacked. She had strong opinions and this could end in disagreements.

Pamela Joan Vandyke-Price
Born21 March 1923
Coventry
Died12 January 2014
London
OccupationWine writer
NationalityUnited Kingdom
EducationSomerville College, Oxford
Subjectwine

Life

Vandyke-Price was an only child born in Coventry (one source says Leicester[1]). Her mother, Florence Amélie née Halliday, was French and her father, Harry Norman Walford was a manager in a watch making business.[2] She went to study at Somerville College of the University of Oxford where she studied English including lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.[3] She then attended the Central School of Speech and Drama and during this time she met a student doctor, Alan Vandyke Price. They were married and she became a journalist at Home and Garden. Her husband died in 1955 from hepatitus which he had caught as part of his job.[1] She consoled herself with a platonic relationship with Allan Sichel. He was amused by her and she learnt about wine.[1]

In 1966 she wrote the book, "France - a Food and Wine Guide".[4] It was not her first book but this one sold well.[3]

She was a wine writer. Credited as the first UK woman to write about wine and spirits.[1] She was the editor of Condé Nast's Wine and Food Magazine until it changed ownership and then she went to write for the Times.[3] In 1971 the Glenfiddich awards were started and she was given their first award and in 1973 they gave her another medal. She had strong opinions and this could end in disagreements. After twelve years at the Times she was sacked.[3]

At some point she started the Circle of Wine Writers.[1]

In 1975 she wrote "The Taste of Wine".[5] In 1980 she published "The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs"[6] and the following year she was knighted when the French government gave her the Order of Agricultural Merit.[1]

She died in 2014 on 12 January in London[1] leaving behind instructions of who not to invite to her funeral.[3]

gollark: Simply enslave it.
gollark: One day C++ template concept meta-vtables will accidentally spawn a sentient AI or something.
gollark: > Circle is a new programming language that extends C++ 17 to support data-driven imperative metaprogramming. Circle combines the immediacy and flexibility of a scripting language with the type system, performance and universality of C++. Three new features make this a more effective programming tool than Standard C++:
gollark: https://www.circle-lang.org/
gollark: Solution: C++, but it's actually lisp.

References
  1. "Pamela Vandyke Price: Wine expert whose acerbic writing scorned". The Independent. 2014-02-18. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  2. "Price, Pamela Joan Vandyke- (née Pamela Joan Walford) (1923–2014), wine writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.107635. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  3. Jaine, Tom (2014-02-04). "Pamela Vandyke Price obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  4. Price, Pamela Joan Vandyke (1966). France: A Food and Wine Guide. Batsford.
  5. Price, Pamela Vandyke (1975). The Taste of Wine. Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-49819-5.
  6. Price, Pamela Vandyke (1980). The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-046335-4.
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