Obituary: Patsy Dalton

Edwardian hats hugely beflowered and a set of scarlet suspenders will always evoke personal memories of Patsy Dalton, writes John Salt (further to the obituary by Philip Porter, 4 June).

We met at a merger, rather a death. That of Woman's Mirror, whose falling readership added to those of Woman would then approach the magic three-million weekly. Which briefly it did. Woman was led by Barbi Buss with able support from Patsy Brougham, as I always knew her, and Jill Churchill. WM under Margaret Laing had pioneered a printing facility called 'Colour backing colour' as part of the armoury against television advertising. Patsy turned this to the uses of Woman while perfecting the process. She also taught me the unwisdom of placing a cut-out coupon on the back of a running serial turn lest eager scissors should erode a nice cliff-hanger.

The hats: well, they celebrated her long and requited love-affair with the Sherlock Holmes Society. But the suspenders? A fleeting flash, no more - obtained while seated side by side to plan one among many hundreds of issues.