Allison Pearson (née Judith Allison Lobbett,[1] born 1960) is a Welsh author and newspaper columnist. Her novel I Don't Know How She Does It, published in 2002, has sold four million copies and has been made into a movie of the same name starring Sarah Jessica Parker. I Think I Love You, her second novel, was published in 2010.[2]
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Born in Carmarthen, Wales, Pearson moved to Burry Port, Carmarthenshire.[2] She attended Market Harborough Upper School (now Robert Smyth School), then Lincoln Christ's Hospital School, both comprehensive schools. She studied English at Clare College, Cambridge,[3] then taught at an inner London school. She also sold advertising.
Prior to taking over from Lynda Lee-Potter at The Mail, Pearson was a columnist with London's Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph. She began her career with The Financial Times, where she was a sub-editor, before moving to The Independent and then The Independent on Sunday in 1992. There she was assistant to Blake Morrison before becoming a TV critic, winning the award for Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993.
Pearson has presented Channel 4's J'Accuse; BBC Radio 4's The Copysnatchers and appeared as a regular panellist on The Late Review (the predecessor of Newsnight Review).
Pearson is the author of a novel, I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), a "chick lit" examination of the pressures of modern motherhood. The book was a bestseller in the UK and the US, selling four million copies, and is being made into a film.[2] She has since written I Think I Love You (2010), a novel about a teenager's passion for David Cassidy in the 1970s, and the man who is responsible for writing the so-called replies from David Cassidy to the teenage fans, two characters who later meet up again 20 years after experiencing marriage, divorce, and kids. The latter book has received good reviews for its warmth and sincerity.[4]
In May 2008, she angered Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, by suggesting her daughter Princess Beatrice was overweight. There appeared to be public support for the princess, with some commenting on Ms Pearson's own apparent lack of anatomical perfection. The Duchess called Pearson for a meeting with herself and her daughter, but Pearson ignored them. On the TV programme This Morning the Duchess attacked the absent columnist.[5]
Pearson was sued by Miramax for non-delivery of a second novel, I Think I Love You, for which she received a US$700,000 advance in 2003. Delivery was due in 2005.[6] In her column of 17 February 2010, she claims to have finished the novel though does not comment on whether legal proceedings for non-delivery have been dropped.[7] The novel I Think I Love You has since been published.[8]
Pearson was married to fellow journalist Simon Pearson,[1] whom she married in May 1988 in Lincoln. She now lives with Anthony Lane,[9] film critic for The New Yorker. They have a son, Thomas (born August 1999), and a daughter, Eveline (born January 1996). They have lived in Cambridge since 2003. Pearson ended her column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, amid reports that she is to join The Daily Telegraph,[10] with a column on her experiences of depression.[11] Pearson is set to reprise her role as a columnist with The Daily Telegraph from September 2010.[12]