Cristina Odone

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Cristina Patricia Odone (born 11 November 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya^[1]) is an Italian journalist, editor, and writer living in the United Kingdom. She has written for several newspapers, and currently writes for The Observer and the The Daily Telegraph. She was formerly the editor of The Catholic Herald, and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She has also written books.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Editor of The Catholic Herald 2.3 TV critic 2.4 Author 2.5 Deputy editor of the New Statesman 2.6 Presenter 2.7 Columnist 3 Sources 4 Further reading

[edit] Early life and education

Odone was born of an Italian father, Augusto Odone, and a Swedish mother.^[2] She has a brother, Francesco, and a half-brother, Lorenzo, from her father's marriage to Michaela Odone (and for whom Lorenzo's oil is named).^[3]

Odone's father was a World Bank official, which occasionally led to the family having to move to a different country. The family lived in Rome from 1962 to 1969, then moved to Washington DC, where they lived until 1977. Odone went initially to Marymount School, then later to the National Cathedral School. When her parents divorced, Odone moved to the United Kingdom to go to St Clare's, a boarding school in Oxford.^[4] Her father was stationed in the Comoro Islands from 1978 until 1981.^{[citation needed]}

Odone studied French literature and history at Worcester College, Oxford.^[4]

Odone has Italian nationality,^[5] though she describes herself as an Italian-American.^[6]

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

After university, Odone worked briefly at The Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom, but left following a violent disagreement with the news editor, Peter Stanford, because he had published a letter attacking Odone by Victoria Gillick, an opponent of birth control. Odone later worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. as an advisor to European companies.^[4]

[edit] Editor of The Catholic Herald

In 1991, Odone became the editor of The Catholic Herald. Peter Stanford had been forced to resign after publishing a book about Catholicism and sex. He had proposed that Odone be his replacement.^[4] Odone left The Catholic Herald in 1996 to finish her second novel, A Perfect Wife.^[7] A 2002 article in The Independent reported Odone discussing having been "fired",^[8] contradicting contemporaneous accounts. Although she did not complain at the time, four years later she contested the article following discussion on the talk pages of this article.^[9]

[edit] TV critic

In 1996, Odone became the television critic for The Daily Telegraph, though she nearly lost the job immediately. In an interview with a journalist from The Guardian, she had said that she regarded television "as a medium for information rather than entertainment", and that she watched it "rarely". To the same question, she had told Charles Moore, the editor of the Telegraph, "I love it". After an initial angry response, Moore relented and Odone kept her job, which she held for the next two years.^[8]

[edit] Author

Odone had two novels published, The Shrine (1996)^[10] and A Perfect Wife (1997).^[11] She contributed to Why I am still a Catholic (2005)^[12]

[edit] Deputy editor of the New Statesman

In 1998, Odone became deputy editor of the New Statesman.^[13]

In 2003, Odone married Edward Lucas, a journalist for The Economist, and gave birth to a daughter, Isabel.^[13]

Odone resigned as deputy editor of the New Statesman in November 2004. She denied reports that the cause was a poor working relationship with editor Peter Wilby, culminating in a row over a cover depicting Tony Blair as Joseph Stalin. Her position was that she and Wilby had a good working relationship, and had both been victims of New Labour plots to destabilise the New Statesman, orchestrated by Tony Blair. She stated that the real reason for her departure was an offer to present a programme on Channel 4 television about religion.^[13] She further alleged that "neo-Left" colleagues had been plotting against the New Statesman, stating "However nasty the Right gets, the Left gets much more wicked", and that this "neo-Left" was making voodoo dolls of her and wishing cancer upon her.^[13] One of those attacked, Johann Hari, questioned her sanity in response, arguing there were inconsistencies in her claims, including that one of the supposedly Blairite conspirators, Jackie Ashley, is opposed to Blair and has called repeatedly for him to resign.^[14]

[edit] Presenter

Odone gave the Church of England's annual Tyndale lecture in 2002, entitled "Why the chattering classes are afraid of Christianity".^[15]

In 2005, Odone presented a television programme called Dispatches: Women Bishops.^[16]

On 20 November 2006, Odone spoke at a national rally,^[17] which was titled "Defend Freedom of Religion, Conscience & Thought: End Attacks on Muslims", and sponsored by the British Muslim Initiative^[18] and Liberty.^[19] She argued that secularists are "the new fascists".

[edit] Columnist

Odone continues to write for The Observer and The Daily Telegraph,^[13] and appear on political programmes on UK television.^[20]

[edit] Sources

[edit] Further reading

• Picture of Cristina Odone, from her profile at The Guardian
• Find Articles: Cristina Odone, a list of articles by or about Odone from various publications
• New Statesman Archive: Cristina Odone, a list of Odone's articles for the New Statesman