Figure 1

Professor Isabel de Madariaga, FRHistS, FBA Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies, University of London Corresponding Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of History

It is with great pleasure that we offer warm congratulations to Professor Isabel de Madariaga who celebrated her ninetieth birthday on 27 August 2009. Professor de Madariaga was co-founder, with Ghița Ionescu and Leonard Schapiro, of Government and Opposition in 1965. In addition to her scholarly judgement she brought practical editorial experience from her work on the Slavonic and East European Review. Her energy and meticulous attention to detail were crucial to the launch of a new quarterly journal, with few resources other than the talent, intellectual enthusiasm and sheer hard work of its founders.

When I joined Government and Opposition as full-time Editorial Assistant in 1978, Lolita, or Lol, as she is affectionately known to family and friends, had borne the burden of the administrative work almost single-handed, with varying degrees of help from support staff. Meanwhile her own academic and writing career in Russian History went on apace, culminating in the publication of her landmark book, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, in 1981, still regarded in 2009 as the definitive work on Catherine.

One of my earliest recollections of working in the Government and Opposition office at the London School of Economics was of following Professor de Madariaga down to the basement beneath the Economists' Bookshop, where the back numbers of the journal were stored in insalubrious conditions. I was impressed by her determination to find the issue required, regardless of the weight of dirty parcels. This typified Lolita's wholehearted attitude to all aspects of the journal's production and distribution.

Like artists and musicians with a passion for their work, Lolita has never retired. Her last major book, Ivan the Terrible, was published in 2005 when she was 86. It has been my pleasure and privilege to work with, and enjoy the friendship of, such a remarkable woman.