York cookery writer Laura Mason at the Mansion House for the York Food and Drink Festival in September 2005
Picture: Mike Tipping LOVING tributes have been paid to Laura Mason, the York cookery writer and food historian, who has died from cancer aged 63. Laura, who died on February 2, was born in Ilkley but settled in York. Her funeral took place on February 15. She was well known in York for her cookery writing and involvement with the York Food Festival. As an expert on confectionery she advised the makers of the 2004 film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, on the set-up of Honeyduke’s Sweetshop.
Submitting.
Born Gladys Cleet in Jesmond, South Shields, of Scots-Irish descent, she grew up in Newcastle. She loved to write as a child, penning short plays for classmates to perform, sending her poems to BBC Children’s Hour, and writing her first novel as a teenager. Her pen name (and preferred name) Alanna was derived from her mother’s maiden name, Allan.
After studying at a local commercial college, she got a job as a secretary at Newcastle University where she met her future husband Alistair Knight, a scientist, on a blind date to the theatre. They married in 1951 and were together for 57 years, until Alistair’s death in 2008.