Stanley-Smith was born in England on 27 December 1950. Her father was George Derek Stanley-Smith, son of Colonel George Edward Stanley Smith. Her mother was Juliana Eveline Curzon, daughter of Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale, whose uncle was George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India.[1] She left England at the age of 19 as a backpacker, and after spending some time in India, settled in Japan at 21. She married a Japanese man in 1974 and started an Eikaiwa school in Kyoto in 1978. She later divorced him and remarried Kajiyama in 1992, moving with him to Ohara in 1996.[1] She became a prominent herbalist in Japan when she was awarded a prize in an NHK herb contest, leading her to write books and give lessons on growing herbs in Japan. Between 2009 and 2013, Venetia was featured in an NHK television series, At Home with Venetia in Kyoto [ja] (Japanese: 猫のしっぽ カエルの手, lit. 'Cat's Tail and Frog's Hand'). She died in Kyoto of aspiration pneumonia at the age of 72 on 21 June 2023.[2] She had two daughters and one son with her first husband and one son with her second husband.
