Margaret Anne Lake (27 July 1942 – 9 March 2023), best known by her stage name Mystic Meg, was an English

astrologer Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

who had a regular astrology column in ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' and the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

''. She also hosted Mystic Meg's Wheel of Destiny for

Sun Bingo Sun Bingo is an online bingo operator based and licensed in Alderney. It was established in 2006, and is part of News UK Group, who also operates newspaper ''The Sun''. The company provides an online bingo gaming platform, predominantly for the ...

. She came to greater public attention when she hosted what became a regular item on the first broadcast of the

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

draw in 1994. Her image also appears on various astrology-related books, posters and merchandise.

Early life and education

Mystic Meg was born Margaret Anne Lake on 27 July 1942, in

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, to Bill Lake, an RAF aircrewman, and his wife Millicent (née Howard). Of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

heritage, she grew up in Accrington and was taught astrology by her grandmother. Her mother formed a new relationship before her father's demobilisation in 1946, and the marriage ended. Meg never saw her father after her parents parted. Meg studied English at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, and then became a sub-editor at the ''News of the World'', rising to become deputy editor of its weekend colour supplement ''Sunday''. In the 1980s, she became the paper's regular astrologer.

Career

From 1994 to 2000, Mystic Meg appeared weekly on ''

The National Lottery Live ''The National Lottery Results'' (previously ''The National Lottery Live'', ''The National Lottery Draw'', ''The National Lottery Stars'' and ''The National Lottery Draws'') is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the Nation ...

'' in 'Mystic Meg Predicts', a 45-second reading segment, during which Meg attempted to predict facts about the future winner. Comedian

Brian Conley Brian Paul Conley (born 7 August 1961) is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of '' The Brian Conley Show'', as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40+ ...

spoofed Mystic Meg under the guise of Septic Peg, a character on ''

The Brian Conley Show ''The Brian Conley Show'' was a comedy variety show, and later a comedy chat show, fronted by comedian Brian Conley. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV between 1992 and 1995, and then 2000 and 2002. Synopsis The show was commission ...

'', with Meg even appearing alongside his parody. Upon her death, her agent paid tribute claiming that, in Britain, her name became synonymous with foretelling the future, to the extent that the answer "I'm not Mystic Meg" would be used by everyone from people in the street to politicians to evade questions about future events. In April 2015, Meg became the face of bookmaker

Gala Coral Group Gala Bingo is an online bingo and casino offering under the ownership of Entain. Gala Bingo was created in 1991 as a division of Bass plc. It later became an independent company, and then became the Gala Coral Group after acquiring Coral E ...

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

"You're Guaranteed a Fortune" marketing campaign. Images of Meg and her

crystal ball A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in fortune-telling. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying through crystal gazing. Used since Antiquity, crystal balls have had a broad reputation with ...

featured in all of Coral's 1,850 shops via window posters and Coral TV. Meg owned a number of racehorses under the company name Mystic Meg Limited, based in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

. The horses include Astrodonna, Astroangel and Astronova, and other horses with celestial names. Her horses were trained by Mark Tompkins from the mid-1990s until 2019 and then by James Eustace. The most successful horse she owned was Astrocharm, which won the

Lillie Langtry Stakes The Lillie Langtry Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain open to fillies and mares aged three years or older. It is run at Goodwood over a distance of 1 mile and 6 furlongs (2,816 metres), and it is ...

at Goodwood in 2004, and she also bred racehorses. In 2015, Meg launched a website featuring horoscopes, personalised readings, and a telephone hotline hosted by

psychics A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that ar ...

. She left ''The Sun'' on 2 January 2015.

Personal life and death

Meg lived in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

with her seven

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s. She died from

influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...

on 9 March 2023 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, aged 80.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mystic Meg 1942 births 2023 deaths 20th-century British astrologers 21st-century astrologers Alumni of the University of Leeds Deaths from influenza in the United Kingdom English astrologers English racehorse owners and breeders English Romani people Infectious disease deaths in England News of the World people People from Accrington The Sun (United Kingdom) people