Natasha Edwards, a travel and arts journalist with a “marvellous legacy” who wrote the first Time Out guide to Paris, has died aged 57.
Edwards, who was the Telegraph’s longstanding Paris expert, died on 30 December from complications following surgery for a brain tumour.
Born in London, Natasha graduated in history from Cambridge and cut her teeth on trade magazines before a chance encounter in a lift with Centre Pompidou curator Jean-Pierre Bordaz changed the course of her life.
She moved to Paris in 1993, where they married, and embarked on her career as a chronicler of all aspects of the city.
Natasha wrote the inaugural Time Out Paris city guide, which was the basis for 23 future editions, edited the quarterly Time Out Paris magazine and wrote on art and restaurants for the weekly anglophone section in Pariscope.
When Time Out closed its Paris offices in 2004 she harnessed her encyclopedic knowledge of the city for The Telegraph’s travel pages for many years.
She also wrote on travel, art, design and architecture for publications including Conde Nast Traveller, The Independent, Elle Decoration and Design Week.
In an obituary for NUJ Paris branch, for whom Natasha served as freelance officer, her former Time Out colleague Alison Culliford wrote: “Natasha was an inspiration, obsessed with factual correctness and indefatigable in her pursuit of the newest additions to the Paris kaleidoscope, as well as divulging the secrets of its covered passages, hôtels particuliers, Modernist architectural gems and artist haunts.
“In the dying days of guidebooks Time Out really set the standard with its small team of reviewers galvanised by Natasha – she never thought a deadline was a good excuse for missing a vernissage or restaurant opening and regularly filed exhibition reviews at midnight for the Time Out weekly section in Pariscope.
“A brave spirit, huge intellect and compassionate human being, Natasha will be much missed by all of us.”
Nicola Mitchell, an editor at Louis Vuitton City Guides, said Natasha had passed on a “marvellous legacy” to her daughter Olivia.
“Natasha was a wonderful role model at a time when the world of freelance writing and editing is becoming increasingly difficult. She never lost her insatiable appetite for exploring all that was new in the arts and art de vivre in France.
“Her intellect, and the warm sense of humour that went with it, never dimmed. In Natasha’s presence petty issues were forgotten – she took you to a higher plain and inspired with stories of her discoveries.”
Picture: Marie-Claire Bordaz
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