Celia Walden

Celia Pughe-Morgan (née Walden; born 8 December 1975) is a French-born British journalist, novelist, and critic. Early life and education Walden was born in Paris, France. Her father, George, became a Conservative MP and Minister for Higher Education under Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Celia's mother, Sarah, is an art historian and picture restorer, who has worked on old masters. Celia was educated at Westminster School, followed by the University of Cambridge, where she read French and Italian. She grew up with two brothers. Career Walden has worked as a waitress, but is best known as a feature writer and former gossip columnist. She was the last editor of The Daily Telegraph's now defunct diary, "Spy". She previously wrote for the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail. Her first novel, Harm's Way, was published in August 2008. Walden wrote a column published in The Daily Telegraph on 24 March 2011, expressing her hatred of cyclists. The end of her article read "(…) and of course this lot are so confident on the roads that they will all be plugged into their iPods, calmly humming 'lalalalala' along to Sasha Distel, as that articulated lorry indicates left". The article was published in the same week that a cyclist in central London had been killed by a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) turning left into her path. Her column was condemned by the Cycling Intelligence website.