Shirley Harrison, a journalist and author whose 1993 book The Diary of Jack the Ripper sparked international controversy, has died at the age of 91. Her family confirmed her death, with her daughter Kate among the survivors.
Career and Controversy
Harrison began her career as a junior reporter on the Walthamstow Guardian in east London. Without formal academic training, she developed a reputation for accessible, well-researched writing. In the 1990s, her agent handed her a facsimile of an alleged diary of Jack the Ripper, commissioning her to authenticate it and write a narrative commentary. The book became an international bestseller, but sceptics attacked its authenticity, leading the US publisher to pulp copies before release and the Sunday Times to withdraw its serialisation. Harrison remained convinced of the diary's authenticity and was frustrated by the vitriol she received.
Life and Other Works
Born in Woodford Green, Essex, to Elsie (née Sheffield) and Leonard Williamson, a water board worker, Harrison attended Woodford County High School. University was not an option, so she started work at the local newspaper. She later moved into public relations, founding her own agency in the 1950s. In 1958, she married John Harrison, a patent agent. The couple travelled to Mali, living in a Dogon village and writing an unpublished book about daily life there. In the 1960s, they moved to Hartfield, Sussex, where they converted a derelict Tudor gatehouse into a smallholding with 20 sheep.
Prolific Author
After a brief pause to raise four children, Harrison returned to journalism via local newspapers. Her first single-authored book, Who Was Father Christmas? (1981), followed travel guides written with John. After John's death from cancer in 1982, she published A Taste of Cider (1982), The Channel (1986), and New Approaches to Cancer (1987). Her later works included Cults: The Battle for God (1990), Sylvia Pankhurst: A Maverick Life (2004), and The Life and Times of Winnie-the-Pooh (2011). She also wrote historical accounts of Southwark and Rochester. In 1997, she married Duncan Field, a chartered surveyor, who died in 2023.
Harrison is survived by her children Kate, Alex, Gavin, and one other; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Penny and Sue.
