Liz Jones
Elizabeth Ann Jones,[1] known as Liz Jones (born 5 September 1958[2]), is a British journalist and writer.
She originally followed a career in fashion journalism, but her work has broadened into confessional writing. Jones divides opinion. While she has gained positive responses, a "beautifully natural writer, as well as a funny one" according to Deborah Ross in The Independent,[3] some of her articles have also received fierce criticism.[4]
A former editor of Marie Claire, she has been on the staff of The Sunday Times and the Evening Standard. Jones currently writes columns for the Daily Mail and the The Mail on Sunday.
Life and career
An anorexic since she was about 11, Jones was raised in Essex, the daughter of an army father and a former ballerina,[3] and the youngest of seven children[5] (her siblings are Claire, Philip, Nick (1949-2011),[6] Lynnie, Tony & Sue).[7] Jones attended Brentwood County High School for Girls[8] and studied journalism at the London College of Printing.
After leaving college, she began to work for Company magazine in 1981, initially as a sub-editor, eventually becoming a staff writer before leaving to go freelance in 1986. In 1989 she began an 11-year stint at The Sunday Times magazine, becoming deputy editor of their "Style" magazine[9] in 1998.
In April 1999, Jones was appointed editor of Marie Claire UK magazine. An announcement by Jones during June 2000 that the leading fashion magazines were setting up a self-regulatory body concerning the size of models was "contradicted" by the editors of rival magazines.[10] Faced by a declining circulation,[10][11] she was sacked from this post two years later[12] for refusing to use bulimic models[13] and (according to Jones) listing in the magazine the freebies she had been offered in the previous month.[3] During this period she met journalist Nirpal Dhaliwal, sent by BBC Radio in 2000 to interview her,[14] and embarked on a seven year relationship with him; their "disastrous" four year marriage ended in 2007.[15] Wanting to become pregnant while with an earlier partner, she has written: "I resolved to steal his sperm from him in the middle of the night. I thought it was my right, given that he was living with me and I had bought him many, many M&S [Marks & Spencer] ready meals."[16]
In 2002 she became Life & Style editor at the London Evening Standard,[9] leaving to join the Daily Mail as Style editor in early 2006.[17] According to Jones she is disliked by the fashion industry: "The fashion industry stinks and everyone in fashion hates me. No one talks to me when I go to the shows. I'm barred from a lot of shows now. I've been barred from Armani, Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Victoria Beckham..."[3] She also writes for British Airways' High Life magazine on destinations and hotels.
Jones has been described by Deborah Orr as a "very gifted writer and apparently very flaky human being".[18] Often considered somewhat self-obsessed, with the veracity of her confessions questioned,[19] she has been defended by Tanya Gold who wrote: "There are many confessional journalists in Britain, but none as forensic or as self-critical as Jones".[13] She has reported from Bangladesh, and was sent by her newspaper to cover the famine in Somalia in the summer of 2011; her suitability for this assignment was questioned by Ros Coward.[20]
Jones now lives in Brushford, just south of Dulverton, Somerset.[5] Her comments about the area and in the book The Exmoor Files angered local people. The journalist Jane Alexander thought Jones opinions were "a clichéd, stereotypical and, frankly, lazy image of the countryside."[21]
Jones most recently writes about her current love interest, the Rock Star (RS), in her weekly diary in the Mail on Sunday's "You" magazine.
Jones has been vegetarian since the age of twelve.[22] Her frequent claims to be a vegan are refuted by her eating eggs and other dairy products. [23][24]
Jones has also been known to rummage through the bins of various massage parlors armed with only a turkey baster.
Bibliography
- Bright Wings Broken (1996) ISBN 1-896-32995-0
- Slave To The Rhythm: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (1997) ISBN 0-316-64041-7
- Liz Jones's Diary: How One Single Girl Got Married (2005) ISBN 1-844-00223-3
- Fur Babies: Why We Love Cats (2007) ISBN 1-844-00518-6
- The Exmoor Files: How I Lost A Husband And Found Rural Bliss (2009) ISBN 0-297-85443-7
References
- ^ For Elizabeth as her first name see Liz Jones "Why Liz is in a tizz", Evening Standard, 19 November 2003
- ^ Liz Jones "Anne, I was born in 1958 - and lying about it is my Weakest Link", Mail on Sunday, 24 May 2008
- ^ a b c d Deborah Ross "Liz Jones: 'All writers betray people. It's tricky'", The Independent, 9 July 2010
- ^ Roy Greenslade "Liz Jones plumbs the depths in report on Joanna Yeates murder", The Guardian (blog), 19 January 2011 and Jonathan Harwood "Twitter turns on the Mail’s Liz Jones over Jo Yeates", The First Post, 17 January 2011
- ^ a b Rachel Cooke "Enough about me", The Guardian, 2 August 2009
- ^ Liz Jones "My rebel brother’s in a cardboard coffin, victim of a system he hated", Mail on Sunday, 30 January 2011
- ^ Liz Jones's Diary: How One Single Girl Got Married p.163,
- ^ Liz Jones "'I always felt different to the other girls': Liz Jones searches for some old school friends", Mail on Sunday YOU magazine, 16 January 2010
- ^ a b Ciar Byrne "Jones to show her style at Standard", The Guardian, 4 September 2002
- ^ a b Jane Thynne "Me and Bridget Jones", The Independent, 3 April 2001
- ^ An article from this period asserts that circulation initially rose after Jones became editor. See Polly Vernon "The girls can't help it", The Guardian, 2 March 2000
- ^ Liz Jones's Diary: How One Single Girl Got Married p.70
- ^ a b Tanya Gold "Give Liz Jones a break!", The Guardian, 22 September 2009
- ^ Hermione Eyre "Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal: Me & Missus Jones", The Independent, 2 April 2006
- ^ Victoria Summersley and Johann Hari "Liz and Nirpal: The last argument", The Independent, 26 May 2007
- ^ Liz Jones "The craving for a baby that drives women to the ultimate deception", Daily Mail, 3 November 2011
- ^ Julia Day "", The Guardian, 6 March 2006
- ^ Deborah Orr "Liz Jones and the face-lift that says it all", The Guardian, 15 June 2011
- ^ See Cristina Odone "So much more than a marriage of inconvenience", Daily Telegraph, 25 April 2006 and Liz Hoggard "The columnist, her 'rock star' boyfriend and an internet gossip frenzy...", Evening Standard, 23 June 2011
- ^ Ros Coward "Sending Liz Jones to report on Somalia is grotesque", The Guardian, 1 August 2011
- ^ Jane Alexander "Why Liz Jones is wrong about Exmoor", Daily Telegraph, 22 August 2009
- ^ LIZ JONES: The caring professions? They just don't seem to care at all | Mail Online
- ^ Fatten me up! What happened when former anorexic Liz Jones had to eat normally for three weeks | Mail Online
- ^ LIZ JONES MOANS: Golf nits in natty knitwear leave me totally teed off | Mail Online
External links
- Articles by Liz Jones from the Mail Online.
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