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Allison Pearson

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British columnist and author (born 1960) For the American scholar, see Allison W. Pearson. For the accused witch, see Alison Pearson (accused witch).

Allison Pearson
BornJudith Allison Lobbett
(1960-07-22) 22 July 1960 (age 64)
Carmarthen, Wales
EducationMarket Harborough Upper School
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
EmployerThe Daily Telegraph
Spouse Simon Pearson ​(m. 1988)​
Allison Pearson talks about I Think I Love You on Bookbits radio

Judith Allison Pearson (née Lobbett; born 22 July 1960) is a British columnist and author. Pearson has worked for British newspapers such as the Daily Mail, The Independent, the Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, and the Financial Times. She has also worked as a presenter for Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4. Pearson's chick lit novel was published in 2002; a film adaptation with the same title, I Don't Know How She Does It, was released in 2011.

Pearson campaigned in favour of Brexit and in 2016 described Brussels as the jihadist capital of Europe. She has criticised the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and opposed transgender rights, describing them as a "an evil trans ideology". She was bankrupted in 2015 by HMRC for non-payment of tax.

Early life

Born in Carmarthen, Pearson moved to Burry Port, Carmarthenshire as a young child. She lived in Leicestershire, and attended Market Harborough Upper School (now Robert Smyth School). Her family moved to Washdyke Lane in Nettleham, where she attended Lincoln Christ's Hospital School, and won a prize for History in the sixth form; she gained A-levels in English, History and French.

She studied English at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with a lower second class degree (2:2).

Career

Journalism

Pearson 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 television critic, winning the award for Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993.

Pearson was a columnist with London's Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, then took over from Lynda Lee-Potter at the Daily Mail. Pearson ended her column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, when it was said that she was to join The Daily Telegraph. In September 2010, Pearson resumed her role as a columnist with The Daily Telegraph. As of 2015, Pearson is a columnist and chief interviewer of The Daily Telegraph. Pearson has presented Channel 4's J'Accuse and BBC Radio 4's The Copysnatchers. She participated as a panellist on Late Review, the predecessor of Newsnight Review.

Pearson is on the Media/PR Advisory Council of Toby Young's Free Speech Union.

"Jew haters" tweet

In November 2024, Pearson was visited at home by Essex Police asking her to undergo a voluntary interview after a complaint that she had incited racial hatred with a tweet posted in November 2023. During a period of scrutiny on British policing of pro-Palestinian protests during the Israel–Hamas war, Pearson had posted a photo of Greater Manchester Police officers standing besides supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party waving the party's flag. However, despite the flag including the word "Pakistan", she called the flagbearers "Jew haters" and misidentified the officers as Metropolitan Police officers, citing an incident where that service had not met with an Israeli-advocacy group. These errors were corrected by a Community Note and Pearson deleted the tweet.

After the visit, Pearson wrote a Telegraph column criticizing the incident and saying that the police had said it was a non-crime hate incident, which garnered public sympathy from right-wing political figures. Afterwards, Essex Police reported The Daily Telegraph to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, saying that it had body camera footage proving that they had never said it was a non-crime hate incident.

Suzanne Moore writing about the incident and its implications in The Telegraph likened the Police's treatment of Pearson to Ruhollah Khomeini's Fatwa against Sir Salman Rushdie in the wake of the Satanic Verses controversy stating "The new authoritarianism says that words are actual violence and somehow people must be protected from them. The Mullahs said that over Rushdie's work, never forget that."

Books

Pearson's first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), was 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 was made into a film.

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: it was published in 2010. The novel was about a teenager's passion for David Cassidy in the 1970s and the man writing the so-called replies from David Cassidy to the teenage fans, who meet up 20 years later after marriage, divorce, and children. The Daily Telegraph praised the novel for its warmth and sincerity; however, The Guardian described it as an "unrealistic and sappy romance".

A sequel to I Don't Know How She Does It was published in September 2017. The novel, How Hard Can It Be, continues the story of the protagonist Kate Reddy, now approaching 50 and struggling with bias against older women in the workplace. The book attracted considerable publicity, but was not a bestseller.

Views

Islamic terrorism

Shortly after the first of the 22 March 2016 Belgian bombings, Pearson suggested that the attacks were a justification for the Brexit cause in the then-upcoming referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, writing on Twitter that "Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we're safer in the EU!" Her tweet was criticised by Kay Burley and The Guardian columnist Owen Jones. Following the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, Pearson called for terror suspects in the United Kingdom to be interned.

Transgender issues

Pearson views transgender identity as "an evil trans ideology" and that "Organisations that should know better have allowed themselves to be infiltrated by a warped ideology that dares to call the fundamental truths of biological science lies".

Writing for the Telegraph about the NHS's decision to log their patient's sexual orientation on every visit; she claimed that politicians were capitulating to the will of LGBT lobby groups. She questioned the allocation of public funds to the advocacy group LGBT Foundation: "It's clear that spineless politicians, pathetically eager to be on-trend, are being manipulated by lobby groups such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Foundation, a “charity” reportedly behind the new NHS policy".

COVID-19 pandemic

Pearson said during the COVID-19 pandemic that she would not wear a protective face mask because she considered it demeaning. In September 2020, Pearson suggested purposely infecting young people with COVID-19 to create herd immunity within the population. In January 2021, Pearson drew censure from Twitter users after outing a critic's employer on Twitter, following her claim that National Health Service (NHS) bed occupancy during the pandemic was lower than suggested.

According to The Guardian, Pearson has made misleading claims about COVID-19. In December 2020, she wrote in her Telegraph column that "Last week, Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Chris Whitty presented another of their Graphs of Doom; this one cherry-picked several hospitals on course to run out of beds." However, this was false, and no such data was presented in the period stated. In July 2021, she misleadingly tweeted that hospitalisations were 0.5% of COVID-19 cases; Full Fact found that the calculation was incorrect, but also did not make sense due to the lag between testing positive and hospitalisation.

Personal life

Pearson was married to fellow journalist Simon Pearson, in May 1988 in Lincoln. She subsequently lived with Anthony Lane, a film critic for The New Yorker. In January, 2024 she adopted a homeless kitten from Turkey.

Allison Pearson was declared bankrupt following a personal insolvency order made by the High Court of Justice in London on 9 November 2015. The bankruptcy petitioner was the Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs.

Awards and honours

Literary awards

Year Work Award Category Result Ref
2003 I Don't Know How She Does It Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize — Shortlisted
Virgin Books Newcomer of the Year Award — Won
Waverton Good Read Award — Longlisted

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ "none". Private Eye. 27 May 2008.
  2. ^ Rachel Mainwaring (11 March 2011). "Teenage crush inspires new novel on David Cassidy". WalesOnline. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  3. ^ Alison Flood (8 April 2015). "Allison Pearson revisits bestselling heroine in middle age". The Guardian.
  4. Edwardes, Charlotte (14 September 2017). "How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson - review". The Standard.
  5. Lincolnshire Echo Monday 20 February 1978, page 6
  6. Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 23 March 1978, page 7
  7. Lincolnshire Echo Saturday 19 August 1978, page 7
  8. "Clare College elects next Master". University of Cambridge. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  9. "Hollywood stardom for novel by Clare alumna". Clare College Alumni Association. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  10. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, Supplement 1981–1985. Cambridge University Press. p. 354.
  11. Roy Greenslade (19 April 2010). "Telegraph woos Oborne and Pearson to quit the Daily Mail". The Guardian.
  12. "Allison Pearson returns to Daily Telegraph". Press Gazette. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  13. Eleanor Black (September 2010). "Women on the verge". Next. p. 32.
  14. "Allison Pearson". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  15. "Who We Are – The Free Speech Union". 7 August 2020. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  16. ^ Armstrong, Kathryn (15 November 2024). "Police defend investigation into journalist's social media post". BBC News. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  17. ^ Dodd, Vikram (15 November 2024). "Allison Pearson's 'racist' tweet is at centre of Telegraph's row with police". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  18. Moore, Suzanne (20 November 2024). "I don't always agree with Allison Pearson but I will defend her right to free speech". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 December 2024. That the Left could not stand up for this basic liberty breaks my heart, but it's all too late now. The new authoritarianism says that words are actual violence and somehow people must be protected from them. The Mullahs said that over Rushdie's work, never forget that. As that great man once said: "Nobody has the right not to be offended." If you will only defend the speech of those you like or agree with, then you are not a social justice warrior, you are a weak simpleton.
  19. "Miramax says British columnist failed to deliver book". Reuters. 11 August 2008.
  20. ^ Chloe Rhodes (21 June 2010). "I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson: review". The Daily Telegraph.
  21. Carole Cadwalladr (21 March 2018). "I Think I Love You, Book review". The Guardian.
  22. Charlotte Edwardes (14 September 2017). "How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson – review". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  23. Saul, Heather (22 March 2016). "Telegraph columnist accused of 'shamelessly' using Brussels attacks to make Brexit argument". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  24. Pearson, Allison (12 January 2016). "Why the Brexit referendum will be swung by the horrific events in Cologne". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  25. Pearson, Allison (1 March 2016). "Our schools and hospitals simply cannot cope with the influx of migrants – that's why we must leave the EU". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  26. Elliott, Chris (23 May 2017). "Manchester attack: intern terror suspects, urges Cambridge-based writer". Cambridge News. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  27. Pearson, Allison (15 March 2024). "The evil trans ideology is in retreat, at last". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  28. ^ Pearson, Allison (17 October 2017). "Will our spineless politicians' love affair with LGBT ever end?". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  29. ^ "Telegraph columnist lashes out at "spineless" pro-LGBT politicians". PinkNews. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  30. ^ Bland, Archie (25 January 2021). "The information warriors fighting 'robot zombie army' of coronavirus sceptics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  31. Pearson, Allison (22 September 2020). "Ridiculous Covid rules are hurting the young – nobody wants them to be punished in our name". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  32. Kemp, Oliver (4 January 2021). "'You're finished' – Telegraph columnist threatens to sue Kent-based scientist". Kent Online. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  33. "Telegraph wrong on Whitty and Vallance statements". Full Fact. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  34. "Allison Pearson tweets misleading stats about Covid hospital patients". Full Fact. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  35. Will Cohu (14 December 2003). "A writer's life: Anthony Lane". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 July 2007.
  36. Pearson, Allison (25 January 2024). "My Turkish cat arrives this week – after huge amounts of money and soppy sentimentality" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  37. Andy McSmith (10 January 2016). "Diary: The ideal figure to bring discipline to unruly Blairites". The Independent. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  38. "Bankruptcy Orders – Pearson, Allison". The London Gazette. No. 61417. 23 November 2015. p. 23080. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  39. Pauli, Michelle (27 May 2003). "Black comedy debut takes Wodehouse". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2011.

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