Zoe Williams

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For the TV doctor and former Gladiators participant, see Zoe Williams (Doctor).

Zoe Williams
Born (1973-08-07) 7 August 1973 (age 48)[1]
England
EducationLincoln College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist, columnist, author
EmployerThe Guardian
Children2

Zoe Abigail Williams[2] (born 7 August 1973 in Hounslow, West London[3]) is a Welsh[4] columnist, journalist, and author.

Early life[]

Williams attended the fee-paying independent Godolphin and Latymer School for girls in London and read modern history at Lincoln College, Oxford.[5] Her father, Mark Williams, was a psychologist,[6][7] and her mother was a set designer for the BBC.[8] Her parents separated in 1976 and divorced 20 years later.[9] Williams has an older sister, Stacey,[10] and half- and step-siblings from her father's marital and extramarital[10] relationships. Williams said her father was a petty criminal because he committed insurance fraud.[6][11]

Writing[]

Williams is a lifestyle, wellness and political journalist for The Guardian - with her Fitness in your 40s, family and political columns. Her work has also appeared in other publications, including The New Statesman,The Spectator, NOW Magazine,[12] the London Cycling Campaign's magazine London Cyclist, and The Times Literary Supplement.[13] She is also a columnist for the London Evening Standard, for which she was a diarist writing about being a single woman in London. She has also written restaurant reviews for The Sunday Telegraph magazine.[14] In May 2011, Williams wrote about fare dodging when in her 30s while travelling on London buses. She wrote "I actually had a lot of affection for bendy buses, mainly because evading your fare was so easy that to pay was almost missing the point. We used to call it freebussing."[15][16]

Political[]

In 2014, Williams defended the social policy legacy of former Labour prime minister Tony Blair and denounced those calling him a war criminal,[17] and has strongly condemned the rule of Fidel Castro in Cuba.[18] In August 2015, Williams endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. She wrote in The Guardian: "The point is, Corbyn doesn't have to be right about everything; he doesn't have to be certain, and fully costed about everything; he doesn't even have to be responsive and listening to everything. This political moment is about breaking open the doors and letting the 21st century in".[19]

Feminism[]

Williams writes about her personal life from a feminist perspective, such as her marriages,[20] motherhood, and her abortion.[21][22]

She wrote Bring It On, Baby: How to have a dudelike pregnancy, a 2010 book of advice for mothers-to-be, which was republished in 2012 as What Not to Expect When You're Expecting.[14]

Awards[]

Wiliams was longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2012[23][24] and was named Columnist of the Year 2010 at the WorkWorld Media Awards.[25]

Broadcasting[]

Williams has appeared as a guest on television. Clive James praised her appearance in documentary Teenage Kicks: the Search for Sophistication: "The brilliant journalist Zoe Williams did a short piece to camera that was almost an aria".[26] She has presented a radio documentary Inside the Academy School Revolution, which Miranda Sawyer found one-sided and "tame",[27] and hosted BBC Radio 4's What The Papers Say. She has been a panellist on the BBC's Any Questions[28] and Question Time.[29]

Criticism[]

In February 2020 Williams was criticised online and in Nation.Cymru for her comments about the Welsh language. Her exercise article criticised a particular Canadian fitness regime as "hard and existentially pointless", continuing: "all that energy spent, no distance covered: it's like eating cottage cheese or learning Welsh."[4] Williams had however previously praised the language for giving Welsh speakers "a more internationalist outlook".[4]

Williams was criticised by Kent News[30] after breaking Covid -19 lockdown rules in the local Wetherspoons at Ramsgate.

Personal life[]

Williams lives in South London, with her second husband, Will Higham, and his daughter from another marriage, as well as her son, Thurston,[31] and daughter, Harper,[32] who were fathered by her first husband before she married him.[33] Williams married the father, a geologist,[34] of her son and daughter[35] in 2013 after ten years together and wrote about the wedding from a feminist perspective in her column for The Guardian.[36][37] In 2018, after divorce, Williams married for the second time.[33]

Williams became a trustee of the Butler Trust[38]—which was established to recognise the achievements of prison service staff—in November 2013.[2]

Williams is a patron of Humanists UK.[39]

References[]

  1. ^ Williams, Zoe (8 August 2018). "Being middle-aged is like taking a warm bath – if you remember not to care". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Zoe Abigail WILLIAMS - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
  3. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007. General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 5c, Page 1094
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Guardian criticised after suggesting Welsh language is pointless". Nation.Cymru. 2 February 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  5. ^ Marrin, Minette (17 May 2009). "When today's left speaks it is right-wing bigotry we hear". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2009. Retrieved 30 April 2020 – via Times Online.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "Boris Johnson's county court judgment actually made me feel sorry for him | Zoe Williams". the Guardian. 14 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Cost of living? What about the cost of being dead? | Zoe Williams". the Guardian. 21 January 2014.
  8. ^ "Zoe Williams decides to call in the dog therapist". the Guardian. 14 October 2005.
  9. ^ Williams, Zoe (1 June 2007). "Talking heads". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "Zoe Williams on Ian McEwan's discovery of a long-lost brother". the Guardian. 18 January 2007.
  11. ^ "Was my grandfather really Britain's top communist? | Zoe Williams". the Guardian. 20 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Now price cut and celeb boost follows rival launch". Press Gazette. 9 October 2002. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013.
  13. ^ "All-Out Wars," TLS (20 December 2019), page 26
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b "Zoe Williams". Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  15. ^ Maguire, Kevin (27 October 2011). "Champagne or sham pain". New Statesman. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  16. ^ Williams, Zoe (27 May 2011). "Boris Johnson and the Routemaster: soft edges and cheerful demeanour". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  17. ^ Zoe Williams (8 April 2014). "Stop calling Tony Blair a war criminal. The left should be proud of his record". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  18. ^ Williams, Zoe (27 November 2016). "Forget Fidel Castro's policies. What matters is that he was a dictator". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  19. ^ Williams, Zoe (16 August 2015). "Corbynomics must smash this cosy consensus on debt". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  20. ^ "Why I married late: a feminist's guide". the Guardian. 24 August 2013.
  21. ^ "Zoe Williams: Is the right to abortion under threat?". the Guardian. 27 October 2006.
  22. ^ "Zoe Williams: I have. I'm not ashamed". the Guardian. 4 July 2006.
  23. ^ "Zoe Williams". Orwell Prize. Orwell Foundation. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  24. ^ "Orwell prize: four Guardian journalists nominated". The Guardian. 31 March 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  25. ^ "David Cohen named reporter of the year at WorkWorld Media Awards". Press Gazette. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  26. ^ James, Clive (7 October 2011). "Clive James on... Grand Designs and Dragons' Den". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 30 April 2020.(subscription required)
  27. ^ Sawyer, Miranda (9 December 2012). "Rewind radio: The Kitchen Cabinet; The Budget; Inside the Academy School Revolution; Breakfast; The Atkinson People – review". The Observer. Retrieved 30 April 2020 – via The Guardian.
  28. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Any Questions? and Any Answers?, AQ: Lord Heseltine, Suzanne Evans, Tristram Hunt MP, and Zoe Williams". BBC.
  29. ^ "BBC One - Question Time, 03/03/2016". BBC.
  30. ^ James, John (2 November 2020). "'Gobsmacked' writer kicked out of Spoons for 'social distancing infractions'". KentLive. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  31. ^ "Guardian staff test out the US trend of bringing baby to work". the Guardian. 8 April 2008.
  32. ^ "Caesareans are not the posh option". the Guardian. 8 October 2009.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b "I do, again: 'There is nothing as deadly serious as a second marriage'". The Guardian. 5 May 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  34. ^ "Zoe Williams: 'I'd choose the school play over interviewing Barack Obama'". www.managementtoday.co.uk.
  35. ^ "Live chat on parenting with Zoe Williams". The Guardian. 8 June 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  36. ^ Zoe Williams (24 August 2013). "Why I married late: a feminist's guide". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  37. ^ Zoe Williams (11 April 2008). "Zoe Williams: My boyfriend is right". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  38. ^ "When prison works: inside New Hall, the women's prison where inmates are equals". the Guardian. 30 January 2015.
  39. ^ "Zoe Williams". Humanists UK. Retrieved 10 December 2012.

External links[]

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