The fashion icon Isabella Blow ended her life by drinking the deadly weedkiller paraquat, a coroner revealed today .

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http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article1774073.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6659837.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Slideshow/slideshowContentFrameFragXL.jhtml;jsessionidFXO0GPGGEUL33QFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/05/15/blow/blowpix.xml&site=News
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/gallery/2007/may/17/fashion?picture=329866886

Initially it was suggested that Mrs Blow had died of cancer. But at the opening of the inquest into her death today the deputy Gloucestershire coroner David Dooley said that tests on her body had tested positive for paraquat. Further toxicological tests are to be undertaken before a full inquest is held in October.

She was married to the barrister Detmar Blow whose father also committed suicide by drinking paraquat.

She was the grand daughter of Sir Jock Delves Broughton who in the 1940s had been tried and acquitted for the murder of Earl of Errol in Kenya. He later killed himself. The story was made into the 1988 film White Mischief starring Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance.

Mrs Blow

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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