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Liz Jones

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Liz Jones
Jones in February 2014
Born
Elizabeth Ann Jones

(1958-09-05) 5 September 1958 (age 66)
England, United Kingdom
Alma materLondon College of Printing
Occupation(s)Writer, journalist

Elizabeth Ann Jones[1] (born 5 September 1958[2]) is a British journalist.

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][5]

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 Mail on Sunday.

Early life and career

Jones is the youngest child of an Army father and a former ballerina.[3][6] By her own account in The Mail on Sunday and Mail website, she grew up in the village of Rettendon, near Chelmsford in Essex,[7] and had six siblings,[8] She attended Brentwood County High School for Girls.[9] Jones says she has been vegetarian since the age of twelve.[10]

According to Jones, "I was six when I first realised how hideous I looked",[11] and she has been an anorexic since the age of about 11.[12] By the age of 17 she wished to look like model Janice Dickinson.[12] Discovering Vogue magazine in Southend Public Library in August 1977, was a revelation for her. It "wasn’t just a magazine to me, its cover was a mirror: how I wanted to look, dress and be".[13] Jones studied journalism at the London College of Printing.

After leaving college, she began to work for Company 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[14] in 1998.

In April 1999, Jones was appointed editor of the UK edition of Marie Claire. 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.[15] Faced by a declining circulation,[15][16] she was sacked from this post two years later[17] for refusing to use bulimic models[18] and (according to Jones) listing in the magazine the freebies she had been offered in the previous month.[3] She has continued to write about the fashion industry. In July 2013, Decca Aitkenhead wrote that "no one deconstructs its futile, psychologically destructive false promises more forensically than Jones – and in a mass market tabloid at that".[12]

During her period at Marie Claire she began to write about her life,[12] and met the journalist Nirpal Dhaliwal, who had been sent by BBC Radio in 2000 to interview her.[19] Jones embarked on a seven-year relationship with him; their "disastrous" four-year marriage ended in 2007.[20] Wanting to become pregnant while with an earlier boyfriend, 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 ready meals... One night, after sex, I took the used condom and, in the privacy of the bathroom, I did what I had to do."[21] On a short-lived chat show presented by Katie Hopkins on the TLC channel in 2015, Jones again described attempting to deposit the sperm in her vagina, "Cos it can crawl, can’t it?" Hopkins asked her: "Liz are you normal?"[22]

At the Mail titles

After four years as Life & Style editor at the London Evening Standard from 2002,[14] she left to join the Daily Mail as Style editor in early 2006 at twice her previous salary.[23][24]

Jones claims that 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".[25]

Often considered somewhat self-obsessed, with the veracity of her confessions questioned,[26][27] 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."[18] 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.[28] In June 2012 she caused controversy by slating Holly Willoughby for posting a photo of herself on Twitter without makeup as a "betrayal to women." This Morning co-presenter Phillip Schofield defended Willoughby, saying "I swear there can be no greater force against all womankind than Liz Jones. She is inconsistent, bitter, nasty and unhinged."[29]

Jones wrote about an alleged current love interest, the Rock Star (RS), in her weekly diary in The Mail on Sunday's You magazine from July 2010. Despite dropping many heavy hints that the "rock star" was Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, in a November 2011 interview in the Evening Standard, she finally admitted it is not Kerr.[30] Almost immediately, she began writing about another alleged love interest, this time a married man living in South America.[31]

In a May 2012 comment piece for the Daily Mail, while referring to the gender discrepancy in male and female mortality rates, Jones wrote "'more men die younger, more are incarcerated’. Well, fine by me!"[32]

Until the end of October 2012 Jones lived in Brushford, just south of Dulverton, Somerset.[6] 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."[33] She now lives in the Yorkshire Dales; a Mail on Sunday column on her surroundings was the subject of four articles in The Yorkshire Post in September 2016.[34][35]

At the beginning of January 2014, Jones became a contestant in Celebrity Big Brother 13 on Channel 5 with comedian Jim Davidson, rapper Dappy, boxer Evander Holyfield, among others.[36] She was evicted from the house on 22 January 2014 after receiving the fewest votes to remain.[37] Jones describes herself as "mostly vegan" and has on at least one occasion experimented with non-vegan diets for health reasons (though remaining vegetarian for ethical ones).[38]

In November 2012, Jones was named Columnist of the Year at the British Society of Magazine Editors Awards.[39]

Bibliography

  • 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 1-84400-223-3.
  • Fur Babies: Why We Love Cats. 2007. ISBN 1-84400-518-6.
  • The Exmoor Files: How I Lost A Husband And Found Rural Bliss. 2009. ISBN 0-297-85443-7.
  • Girl Least Likely To: 30 Years of Fashion, Fasting and Fleet Street. 2013. ISBN 978-1471101953.

References

  1. ^ For Elizabeth as her first name see Liz Jones "Why Liz is in a tizz", Evening Standard, 19 November 2003
  2. ^ Liz Jones (24 May 2008). "OK Anne, I was born in 1958 – and lying about it is my Weakest Link". Mailonsunday.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d Deborah Ross (9 July 2010). "Liz Jones: 'All writers betray people. It's tricky' - Press - Media". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  4. ^ Greenslade, Roy (19 January 2011). "Liz Jones plumbs the depths in report on Joanna Yeates murder | Media | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  5. ^ Harwood, Jonathan (17 January 2011). "Twitter turns on the Mail's Liz Jones over Jo Yeates | Jo Yeates killing News | The Week UK". Thefirstpost.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  6. ^ a b Cooke, Rachel (2 August 2009). "Liz Jones talks to Rachel Cooke about the compulsion to tell all". The Observer. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  7. ^ Jones, Liz (18 March 2012). "Chelmsford, Essex: You can't make a colourful city out of a dull, sepia town". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  8. ^ Jones, Liz (12 July 2015). "What the lonely death of my alcoholic sister says about the fate of single women in Britain today". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  9. ^ Liz Jones (16 January 2010). "Liz Jones searches for some old school friends: 'I always felt different to the other girls". Mail Online. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  10. ^ Liz Jones (8 January 2011). "The caring professions? They just don't seem to care at all". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  11. ^ Liz Jones "What I see in the mirror", The Guardian, 10 March 2007
  12. ^ a b c d Decca Aitkenhead "Liz Jones: 'My whole anti-mums thing is jealousy. I've got nothing. Just work'", The Guardian, 6 July 2013
  13. ^ Liz Jones Girl Least Likely To: Thirty years of fashion, fasting and Fleet Street, cited in David Sexton "Liz Jones, journalism’s mistress of self-loathing", Evening Standard, 4 July 2013. Jones tells Decca Aitkenhead that she discovered Vogue at 17, in other words a year or so earlier.
  14. ^ a b Ciar Byrne (4 September 2002). "Jones to show her style at Standard | Media | MediaGuardian". Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  15. ^ a b Thynne, Jane (3 April 2001). "Me and Bridget Jones". The Independent.
  16. ^ 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
  17. ^ Liz Jones's Diary: How One Single Girl Got Married p.70
  18. ^ a b Tanya Gold (22 September 2009). "Give Liz Jones a break! | Tanya Gold | Comment is free". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  19. ^ Hermione Eyre (2 April 2006). "Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal: Me & Missus Jones - Profiles - People". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  20. ^ Victoria Summersley and Johann Hari (26 May 2007). "Liz and Nirpal: The last argument - Media, News - The Independent". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  21. ^ Liz Jones (3 November 2011). "Liz Jones' baby craving drove her to steal husband's sperm in ultimate deception". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  22. ^ Conlan, Tara (6 August 2015). "Katie Hopkins' TV show: 'I'm not playing the part of a pantomime villain'". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  23. ^ Day, Julia (6 March 2006). "Jones joins Mail as style editor". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  24. ^ Thynne, Jane (29 April 2006). "Is Paul Dacre the new Roman Abramovich?". The Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  25. ^ Deborah Orr (15 June 2011). "Liz Jones and the face-lift that says it all | Fashion". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  26. ^ Cristina Odone (25 April 2006). "So much more than a marriage of inconvenience". Telegraph. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  27. ^ Liz Hoggard (23 June 2011). "The columnist, her 'rock star' boyfriend and an internet gossip frenzy... | News". Thisislondon.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  28. ^ Ros Coward (1 August 2011). "Sending Liz Jones to report on Somalia is grotesque | Ros Coward | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  29. ^ "Phillip Schofield Sticks Up For Holly Willoughby Over Liz Jones' Damning 'Daily Mail' Article". Huffington Post. 28 June 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Richard Godwin "I sold my soul... now I'm selling my eggs, says Liz Jones", Evening Standard, 21 November 2011
  31. ^ Liz Jones (18 December 2011). "In which I pack my globetrotter | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  32. ^ Jones, Liz (19 May 2012). "Who cares if men are stuck in a glass cellar? (They can change the bulb while they're down there)". Daily Mail, UK. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  33. ^ Jane Alexander (22 August 2009). "Why Liz Jones is wrong about Exmoor". Telegraph. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  34. ^ Jones, Liz (18 September 2016). "Rural life better? No, it's sexist, cruel and lonely". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  35. ^ Marley, Jules (25 September 2016). "Tell Liz Jones I would rather have a White Rose than a Waitrose". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 October 2016. Dowle, Jayne (22 September 2016). "For the benefit of Liz Jones, here's the Yorkshire countryside's natural order..." The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 October 2016. Smith, Stephanie (20 September 2016). "Someone give Waitrose-loving Liz Jones a reality show, please". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 October 2016. Barnett, Ben (18 September 2016). "Who'd live in the 'sexist' Yorkshire Dales? There's not even a Waitrose". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  36. ^ John Plunkett "Celebrity Big Brother 2014: Liz Jones and Evander Holyfield enter the ring", The Guardian, 3 January 2013.
  37. ^ Nicholas Bieber "Day 19: Liz Jones evicted from Celebrity Big Brother, Luisa gets punished for rule breaking and Ollie gets upset with Sam", Cambridge News, 22 January 2014
  38. ^ Liz Jones (8 June 2009). "Fatten me up! What happened when former anorexic Liz Jones had to eat normally for three weeks". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2011. Being mostly vegan, too, makes me extra awkward."..." My only rule is that I will remain a vegetarian; an ethical stance, not a health one.
  39. ^ "Top award for our inimitable Liz Jones 'who divides opinion as a good columnist should'". The Mail On Sunday. 18 November 2012. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
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