Woman, thought to have been a former Guardian journalist, dies in Kentish Town fire

A 75-year-old woman believed to be a top journalist who once worked for the News Statesmen and The Guardian has died in a house fire in Kentish Town.

The woman named locally as Corinna Ascherson was dead when an ambulance arrived at her home in Rhyl Street, off Malden Road, at 5.30pm last night (Thursday 8).

Also known as Corinna Adam she was the daughter of former BBC controller Sir Ken Adam and the feminist writer, Ruth Adam.

She had once been married to Neal Ascherson the Scottish journalist who writes for the Guardian and the Observer.

They were divorced and it was thought that she lived alone.

Neighbours said her death “cast a shadow over the street”.

Fire crews from Kentish Town, Belsize and Euston were called at 5.27pm and had the fire under control by 6.21pm.

Nobody else was injured in the blaze which gutted her ground floor flat in the building of three storeys.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.