Twinkling

Merope Mills, a Guardian 'lifer', is the latest partner in Tortoise Media, the online journalism venture of former BBC News director James Harding.

Merope is a product of Hurtwood House in Dorking ("The most exciting school in England") and the University of Manchester, where she got a first in Applied Science (Psychology) and edited Student Direct. In 1999 she won the title Student Feature Writer of the Year, and eventually persuaded Ian Katz to give her a six-month contract. She's currently based in San Francisco as West Coast Editor.

Merope is the daughter of  actress Valerie Leon, the Hai Karate girl of the 60s, with roles in two Bond films, six Carry On films and the seminal Hammer oeuvre, "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb." Father was tv producer Michael Mills, once Head of Comedy at the BBC, and the man who suggested the title "Dad's Army" to Jimmy Perry, when the working title was "The Fighting Tigers".

The name Merope is perhaps first found in Greek mythology, as the youngest of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and a consort of Hermes. Voltaire's play, Merope, of 1743, is the story of the queen of Messinia holding the throne for her absent son while resisting an ambitious and popular general.  Frederick the Great turned it into an opera.  J K Rowling's character, Merope Riddle (nee Gaunt) was a pure-blood witch, daughter of Marvolo Gaunt, and mother of Tom Marvolo Riddle. Tom is better known as Lord Voldemort, the most dangerous Dark Wizard of all time.