French writer Edmonde Charles-Roux, who was among the founding editors of Elle magazine and a longtime editor of Vogue before turning to literature, has died aged 95.

The Academie Goncourt, whose prize she won with her novel To Forget Palermo, said she died in her home town of Marseille late on Wednesday.

The daughter of a diplomat who spent most of her childhood outside France, Charles-Roux obtained a nursing degree in 1939 when the Second World War broke out. She was wounded in a bombing in 1940 and was ultimately honoured by the French Foreign Legion.

At the end of the war, she worked for the newly founded Elle, before ultimately becoming chief editor of Vogue until 1966, when her first novel was published.