Louise Botting, the trailblazing financial journalist and businesswoman who wrote for the Daily Mail's Money Mail before launching BBC Radio 4's Money Box, has died aged 87.
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who → write → 87
Her daughter, Sky News broadcaster Anna Botting, revealed she had lost her beloved mother following a short illness, just three days after her birthday in September.
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she → reveal → September
A pioneer in both journalism and business, Louise helped transform the way financial news and household spending was explained to ordinary Britons.
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news → transform → Britons
Missing you so much,' her daughter, the broadcaster Anna Botting, said today.
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daughter → miss → you
She added: 'My mum.
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She → add → ?
Before either journalism or broadcasting, she had broken into the male-dominated world of the City in the 1960s as a banker.
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she → break → banker
Female financiers and analysts were so rare that her firm, Kleinwort Benson, had to build her a women's toilet.
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firm → have → toilet
Louise then made her name on the Daily Mail's Money Mail pages, where from 1972 to 1976 she won a loyal following for her authoritative and accessible writing on household spending, mortgages and investments.
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she → make → spending
By the time she was chosen to front Money Box in 1977, she had already established herself as one of the country's leading financial journalists.
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she → choose → journalists
Louise presented the very first edition of Money Box and remained its defining voice for 15 years.
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Louise → present → years
The programme remains on air today and, in 1993, she was awarded a CBE by Sir John Major for services to journalism.
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she → remain → journalism
A pioneer for women in business, she later sat on the boards of some of Britain's biggest companies and founded her own successful wealth management consultancy.
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she → sit → consultancy
Louise Botting, the trailblazing financial journalist and businesswoman who wrote for the Daily Mail's Money Mail before launching BBC Radio 4's Money Box, has died aged 87
Hew daughter Anna Botting, the Sky News presenter, revealed her mother had passed away in September following a short illness
Anna recalled that her mother would only put on her famous 'radio voice' with her and her sister Kate, a writer and television producer, when they were really in trouble.
The sisters also enjoyed an unexpected boost in popularity at school when Money Box adopted Pink Floyd's iconic 1973 hit Money as its theme tune four years later.
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Box → write → tune
Louise Botting presented the programme until 1992, when she left after being appointed to the board of London Weekend Television.
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she → present → Television
She had hoped to continue in both roles, but the BBC insisted she could not, claiming it was a conflict of interests.
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it → hop → interests
So she told her bosses at the Beeb: 'Oh well, I'm going.
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I → tell → Beeb
Elizabeth Louise Botting was born in Liverpool in 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, to teacher Edith Young and insurance broker Bobby Young.
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Botting → bear → Young
Her brother, John, later played rugby for England.
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brother → play → England
During the war, the family had been evacuated away from Merseyside to North Wales before eventually settling in Sutton Coldfield, where she attended the town's renowned Grammar School for Girls.
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she → evacuate → Girls
Despite losing her father while still a teenager, she won a place at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1961 before embarking on a career in the City at a time when female bankers were an absolute rarity.
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bankers → lose → time
At the same time, she was raising her two daughters from her marriage to adventurer Douglas Botting.
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she → raise → Botting
The couple divorced after 21 years, in 1985.
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couple → divorce → 1985
She later married Les Carpenter, the publishing executive who served as chief executive of Reed International and was perhaps best known as the man who sold the Daily Mirror to Robert Maxwell.
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who → marry → Maxwell
Alongside her journalism career, Louise founded wealth management consultancy Douglas Deakin Young with two male partners, using her maiden name, Young.
Louise Botting and daughter Anna in the 1960, when she was a traiblazing mother who forged a career in the City
Louise Botting presented Money Box until 1992, when she left after being appointed to the board of London Weekend Television.
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she → found → Television
Mrs Botting (bottom left) was a pioneer who served on the boards of some of Britain's biggest and best known businesses
The business operated for more than three decades before being acquired by a private bank in 2005 and ultimately becoming part of the Royal Bank of Canada through a series of subsequent takeovers.
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business → serve → takeovers
After moving from the Daily Mail to the BBC, Louise became renowned for her distinctive broadcasting voice and her ability to make complicated financial matters understandable to millions of listeners.
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matters → move → listeners
At its peak, more than three million people tuned in to Money Box each week, and the programme became so influential that successive prime ministers and chancellors were said to be keen to know what would be broadcast before it went on air.
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it → tune → air
It is now presented by Paul Lewis.
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It → present → Lewis
Yet despite her expertise, she admitted to being something of a technophobe and that her daughters would rib her about it.
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daughters → admit → it
While she could explain the complexities of the financial world, she said she felt 'very ill at ease' using cash machines and preferred paying by credit card.
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she → explain → card
'I've always thought it quite daft to stand in a street in central London, punch information into a machine and then take out a lot of money.
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it → think → money
It would make me feel very ill at ease,' she said in the 1990s.
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she → make → 1990s
After leaving the BBC, she enjoyed considerable success in the boardroom, serving as a director of General Accident, now part of Aviva, until its merger with Norwich Union at the turn of the century.
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she → leave → century
She also sat on the boards of publisher Trinity Mirror and National Lottery operator Camelot, cementing a career that saw her break barriers in banking, journalism and business alike.
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her → sit → banking
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