Fiona Macpherson was born in London with her family moving to Inverness when she was five. She studied English and Modern History at St Andrews University, before starting her career as a magazine editor in Dundee. In 1963 she moved to London to become a sub-editor on ‘Woman’s Own’, and in 1965 joined the staff of ‘Queen’. When the latter merged into ‘Harpers & Queen’, Macpherson became deputy editor. In 1975 she married Adrian Bailey, the artist of this portrait, and after the birth of her first child she devoted herself to family life. Only after being offered the position of editor of ‘Harpers & Queen’ in 1994 did she return to full-time work. She worked until weeks before her death from cancer in 2000.