ANNE MASON, a former women’s editor of the Kent Messenger Group and a long-time resident of Kent, has died at her home after a short illness. She was 95.

A highly acclaimed and much published author and journalist, Mrs Mason and her husband John, also a journalist, moved to Maidstone in 1963 from Australia, where she had forged a successful career in journalism.

In 1943, she had become her native country’s first accredited female war correspondent and, later, hosted her own TV cookery series on ABV-2.

Within weeks of her arrival in Britain she was invited to join the staff of the Kent Messenger, where she was given her own weekly column, concentrating initially on her twin specialities of food and wine, and travel and, later, covering county affairs.

In 1967 she was appointed women’s editor of the Kent Messenger Group. As John and Anne Mason, she and her husband established themselves as a travel-writing duo.

During the next 20 years they went on to produce travel books on almost every country in Europe, as well as contributing to travel guides on the British Isles and articles to magazines and newspapers worldwide.

But, despite her prolific output and success as an author – she had more than 30 books published on such diverse subjects as Swiss cooking, English country hotels and travelling in Yugoslavia, it was as a keen observer and erudite chronicler of county affairs, in particular those of special relevance to the papers’ women readers, that Mrs Mason will best be remembered.

After her retirement in 1976 she continued to write and, although well into her 70s, continued to contribute articles to the Kent Messenger.

In later years, Mrs Mason moved first to Broadstairs, where she was an active, and frequently outspoken, member of the local Townswomen’s Guild.

Her husband died in 1982, at the age of 68. She leaves a son, Peter, also a journalist, who trained as a reporter on the Kent Messenger.