My wife, Gail MacColl Jarrett, who has died aged 66 of multiple myeloma, was an author, editor and relationship counsellor. She edited two New York Times No 1 bestsellers: The Official Preppy Handbook (1980) and Items from Our Catalog (1982), as well as the longtime Academy Awards ceremony bible, Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards (1986).
As well as co-writing Reagan’s Reign of Error (1981), with Mark Green, she was co-author with Carol McD Wallace of To Marry an English Lord (1989) – cited by Julian Fellowes as inspiration for his television series Downton Abbey.
Born in Philadelphia, to Alexander MacColl, a headteacher, and Mary (nee Wentworth), a writer and activist, Gail was the eldest of six sisters. She attended Quaker schools in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey before graduating in English literature from Barnard College, New York, in 1977. As an undergraduate she contributed to the Barnard Literary Magazine, wrote film reviews for the Barnard Bulletin and the Columbia Daily Spectator, and jointly founded a film critics’ circle. After graduating, she was an editor at Workman Publishing (1977-81) before going freelance.
She and I met in Rhode Island while Gail was researching local American heiresses for To Marry an English Lord, and I, a British psychiatrist, was studying family therapy at Brown University. She continued her research in the UK, and in 1986 we married, eventually settling in Dulwich, south London. In the 1990s Gail trained as a couples counsellor with London Marriage Guidance (now Tavistock Relationships).
In 1995 she co-founded ARC (Association for Relationship Counselling), a group of psychodynamic marital and couples counsellors providing relationship therapy in south London. After nearly 20 years as a psychotherapist with her own practice, and having also written The Book of Cards for Kids (1992) and The Book of Card Games for Little Kids (2000), Gail retired in 2014.
Gail was a woman of strong leftwing views, wittily expressed, and did not suffer fools gladly. A Labour party member and committed reader of the Guardian, she believed in a comprehensive social welfare system and was passionately pro-NHS. She was especially disturbed by austerity, joining the fight against it as a member of UKUncut – attending many protests, often with our youngest daughter in tow.
Her passion for social justice was a reflection of her deep interest in other people. Those who knew her valued her sharp humour, shrewd advice, kindness and profound empathy.
In later life she was a keen duplicate bridge player and a skilled gardener. She was an ardent sports fan – above all a supporter of Liverpool Football Club, who won the Premier League for the first time in 30 years on the day she died.
She is survived by me, our four children, Isabel, Prudence, Alexander and Miranda, and her mother and sisters.
