‘ Edith Adams’
The longest- running Sun columnist was Edith Adams, who dispensed recipes and household hints from 1924 to 1999 — threequarters of a century.
The catch was, there was no Edith Adams. It was a fictitious name conjured up by The Sun for a column on the features or “women’s” pages. It was initially called Edith Adam’s Cookery Page, and proved so popular, The Sun started publishing Edith Adam’s Prize Winners Cook Books, filled with recipes sent in from readers.
The names of the women who wrote the columns in the 1920s and ’ 30s are lost, but in the 1940s, Marianne Pearson Linnell, Myrtle Patterson Gregory and Eileen Norman all contributed. In 1947, The Sun opened up Edith Adams’ Cottage, where readers could watch Miss Adams ( Linnell) cook up recipes, then buy the cookbooks. The women also took questions by phone.