Zanny

It won't be often that "Minton-Beddoes" will be found trending on Twitter in London and Washington, but today the Economist found its first woman editor in 172 years, in Zanny, of that surname.

She's one of the Shropshire Minton-Beddoes (are there any others ?), with mum and dad still farming from 17th century pile, Cheney Longville Hall. Born in 1967, she went to nearby girls' public school, Moreton Hall, and thence to Oxford to study PPE at St Hilda's. (HT Henry Mance at the FT) There followed a Kennedy scholarship to Harvard, acquiring a Masters in Public Administration. Two years with the IMF, and then she joined the Economist in 1994. She moved to Washington for the magazine in 1996, and only came back full-time to the UK in August last year - five months before John Micklethwait announced he was stepping down as Editor.

Husband is another economics writer, Sebastian Mallaby, who's appeared more often as an FT columnist in recent months.