Alethea Hayter (1911–2006)

Alethea Hayter was born and spent her early childhood in Cairo, Egypt, where her father Sir William Hayter, was a legal and financial adviser to the Egyptian government in the waning years of the British Protectorate.;After her father died when she was 12 years old, the family returned to England. Alethea attended Downe House School, in Berkshire, and at Oxford University, from which she graduated with a BA in modern history. She joined the editorial staff of Country Life magazine, and during World War II, she served as a postal censor in London, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Trinidad. In 1945, she joined the British Council, and in 1952 was posted to Greece as an Assistant Representative. In 1960, she went to Paris as Deputy Representative and assistant cultural attaché, and her apartment became a meeting place for writers and artists.