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][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 The Mail on Sunday.

Contents 1 Life and career 2 Bibliography 3 References 4 External links

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^[6] (her siblings are Claire, Philip, Nick (1949-2011),^[7] Lynnie, Tony & Sue).^[8] Jones attended Brentwood County High School for Girls^[9] 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^[10] 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.^[11] Faced by a declining circulation,^[11][12] she was sacked from this post two years later^[13] for refusing to use bulimic models^[14] 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,^[15] and embarked on a seven year relationship with him; their "disastrous" four year marriage ended in 2007.^[16] 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."^[17]

In 2002 she became Life & Style editor at the London Evening Standard,^[10] leaving to join the Daily Mail as Style editor in early 2006.^[18] 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".^[19] Often considered somewhat self-obsessed, with the veracity of her confessions questioned,^[20][21] 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".^[14] 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.^[22]

Jones now lives 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."^[23]

Jones has written about an alleged current love interest, the Rock Star (RS), in her weekly diary in the Mail on Sunday's "You" magazine. 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.^[24] Almost immediately, she began writing about another alleged love interest, this time a married man living in South America. ^[25]

Jones has been vegetarian since the age of twelve.^[26] Her frequent claims to be a vegan are refuted by her eating eggs and other dairy products,^[27][28] and her continued espousal of the use of leather in fashion. ^[29]

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

External links

• Articles by Liz Jones from the Mail Online.

Persondata
Name	Jones, Liz
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 September 1918
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death