Caroline St John-Brooks: The former editor of the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Caroline St John-Brooks, who has died aged 56 of cancer, was that rare combination of the education journalist who had actually taught, and the serious academic who knew how to have fun.
In her 3½ years as editor, from 1997, she expanded and modernised the paper, introducing new magazine sections to appeal to the women who make up the bulk of the teaching profession, and concentrating more coverage on issues of direct interest to classroom practitioners.
The daughter of an army major, she attended the Royal School in Bath, a boarding school she hated, before escaping to take her A-levels at Thornbury grammar. Home was a manor house in which her father had opened a restaurant; her mother was front-of-house, while he did the cooking.
Her undergraduate years had been spent studying English at Trinity College, Dublin - she came from an Anglo-Irish family - but she was fascinated by how society decides what aspects of a culture to pass on to the younger generation, and was drawn to take a master's degree in education at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. There she also met her husband Roger Hampson, now chief executive of Redbridge council.
The MA was followed by a doctorate at Bristol. She worked as an English lecturer for eight years, first in Ireland, where she also wrote on education for The Irish Times, and then at Bristol Polytechnic.
In 1979 she took the big step of going into full-time educational journalism, becoming education correspondent of New Society.
The synthesis of knowledge and networks from her academic and journalistic lives fused well and, after eight years, she went to the Sunday Times as education editor for three years, arriving at the TES as assistant editor in 1990, the same year she was first diagnosed with breast cancer.
She researched the topic thoroughly, and became one of the first women in England to be prescribed tomoxifen on the NHS after a friend told her she must have it. Even though she suffered much over the years, she was never defined or controlled by the disease.
The unconventional and strong relationship with her husband and children showed through again when she took a job as a researcher and administrator with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1994. The job was in Paris, her son was doing his A-levels and her daughter, Martha, was at primary school.
Once again, Roger took over the main caring role, while Caroline rented a rooftop flat and threw herself with vigour into a job that took her all around the world, commuting back to London at weekends.
She took the editor's chair at the TES on the day Tony Blair came to power, and became a thorn in the side of education ministers - and sometimes teachers. She remained convinced that the key to a successful society lay in what happened in the classroom.
She stayed in the post until yet another bout of breast cancer, although successfully treated, persuaded her she had done what she set out to achieve, and should spend more time with her family.
She had a talent for making people feel better about themselves, and was genuinely delighted in their achievements.
Her parents, husband and children survive her.
Caroline St John-Brooks: born March 24th, 1947; died September 8th, 2003