Doreen Montgomery, chairman of the literary agency Rupert Crew Ltd., died November 26 "following a seven-decade career in the trade," the Bookseller reported. She was 89. Her clients included Dame Barbara Cartland and Sir Cecil Beaton. Montgomery joined F. Rupert Crew as a teenager in the belief that it "might open other doors."
Mark Carwardine, one of her authors, said she "very kindly signed me up as a young and naïve 24-year-old and, over the years, tirelessly helped to bring dozens of books to fruition. A true force of nature, with a lifelong enthusiasm for books, writers and publishing, with no qualms about telling it how it was, she was the most sensational person to have on your side. She was also scrupulously honest, totally unselfish, unfailingly loyal, and had the biggest, kindest heart imaginable."
Longtime client, historian and astrologer Nicholas Campion described her as "ever-charming, unflappable and supremely competent" and someone he thought would be "immortal." He said: "I think she still is, for everyone who benefited from the example she set of honesty and high principle. Doreen became, as I am sure she was to many of her clients, a 'mother', who I could rely on at every turn for every aspect of my writing career."