My friend Jill Hood, who has died aged 81, was a family lawyer in her own firm who had previously made her mark in publishing by helping to secure the sponsorship for the original Booker prize. For nearly 50 years she was also an active member of her community in West Hampstead, north London.
Born in Madras (now Chennai), India, Jill was the daughter of Joan (nee Brockhurst), an interior designer, and John Mortimer, a manager in the then Imperial Bank.
Her mother died when she was five; at the age of 10 Jill returned to Britain to be educated at Lewes county grammar school in East Sussex.
Her first job came in publishing, as a secretary at Michael Joseph, where she became a promotions officer, and later at Thames and Hudson, working in book marketing. Her next step was as executive promotions officer at the Publishers Association.
There she collaborated with the publisher Tom Maschler to set up a new literary prize intended to rival the French Prix Goncourt. Jill worked hard to secure the sponsorship that made the Booker prize possible, and it was Jill who let PH Newby know that he was the first winner of the prize in 1969. Maschler later said there would never have been a Booker without Jill.
In the 1970s, her love of publishing waned and she decided to retrain as a solicitor. After graduating in law from the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster) in 1979, she undertook articles at BM Birnberg and Co near London Bridge. She worked for a period at Tyrer Roxburgh in Wood Green, and in the 1980s established the firm Eaton Hood, with professional partner Tony Hood, in Willesden Green. She rapidly acquired a reputation as a dedicated family lawyer.
In 1972 she married Stuart Hood, the writer and controller of BBC television. When their marriage ended in the late 1970s, she remained a close stepmother to his son, Andrew.
Jill retired in 2001. She remained active in West Hampstead Amenity and Transport Group, volunteered at West Hampstead Community Centre, and was a friend of West Hampstead library. She was a long-standing member of the local Labour party. She was a rich source of knowledge about politics and history, the arts, opera and literature.
Jill was also a passionate horticulturist and a practitioner of street gardening. She tended in her front garden possibly the finest fig tree in all of London and harvested a rich crop of blackberries at her allotment.
She is survived by Andrew and by her sister, Janet, brother, John, niece, Jo, and nephew, Ben.
