Frances Crook has worked for the Howard League — the oldest penal reform charity in the world — as director and now chief executive since 1986, so she has had plenty of time to come to terms with jokes about her name. “Frances means free one in Latin, and a Crook is a criminal, so perhaps I was destined to try to free the criminals,” she quips. Ms Crook has not always had such a sober occupation. She attended Camden Girls School in London until her headmistress suggested she leave at the age of 15 before taking her O-levels. After that she made false eyelashes for Vidal Sassoon and worked in a shop in Carnaby Street before going to live in Paris for a year

Source: The Times September 09, 2020 23:03 UTC