Tribute: Felicity Green, former Media Society Council Member

By John Mair

A Media Society institution has died at the ripe old age of 100.

Felicity Green was a force of nature in Fleet Street and on the Media Society Council for many years. She was a Media Society stalwart, though sometimes a trenchant one.

To say she was pioneering in Fleet Street is to undersell her. She was the most influential fashion editor of the 1960s and the first woman to be appointed to the board of a national newspaper. She became fashion editor of the then five million-selling Daily Mirror. She helped build Biba from the back streets of Kensington to the High Street through her paper. Her motto was simple: “Fashion needs to be followed at a very, very respectful distance. My blueprint for fashion is to be simple and stylish.”

Felicity Green was eventually promoted to be executive women’s editor across all three Mirror group titles and was appointed publicity director, becoming, in the words of a trade magazine, the first director “to powder her nose before a board meeting”.

After resigning from the Mirror, Felicity ran the UK office of Vidal Sassoon, but later returned to journalism, helping to launch Working Woman magazine and advising the boards of the Express, the Telegraph and the publishers of M&S Magazine.

On the Media Society Council, she was ever present and ever sharp. And she was always willing to put in the organising yards when called upon. In total, she was probably a Council member for over 10 years.

Geraldine Sharpe-Newton, the then Media Society President, remembers her fondly: “She was a wise woman and gave me, when I was a bit too American, sage advice. She was one of the crucial voices for women. I would describe her as a torchbearer for all the women in journalism that have followed.”

Felicity Green, born June 26 1926, died September 10 2026.