Proops, Marjorie
PROOPS, MARJORIE
PROOPS, MARJORIE (1911–1996), British advice columnist and journalist. Born Rebecca Marjorie Israel in Tottenham, London, the daughter of salesman, she went to art school and became a freelance fashion artist, known as Marjorie Proops after her marriage. Around 1945 she became fashion editor of the London Daily Mirror newspaper and soon after began the advice column which made her nationally known, "Ask Marje." Emulating such American advice columnists as Abigail Van Buren, Proops became probably the best-known "Agony Aunt" (as such columnists are known) in Britain. She was especially noted for her extreme frankness on sexual matters and is seen as having a role in initiating the more liberal attitudes of the 1960s. A 1992 biography by Angela Patmore, Marje: The Guilt and the Gingerbread, revealed her own failing marriage and many affairs. Proops was named Woman Journalist of the Year in 1969 and was the author of an autobiography, Dear Marje (1976).
bibliography:
odnb online.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]