Liz Jones Explained

Liz Jones
Birth Name:Elizabeth Ann Jones
Birth Date:5 September 1958
Birth Place:Chelmsford, England
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:London College of Printing
Occupation:Writer, journalist
Years Active:1981–present

Elizabeth Ann Jones[1] (born 5 September 1958) is a British journalist.

She began her career as a fashion journalist, 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,[2] some of her articles have been fiercely criticised.[3] [4]

A former editor of Marie Claire, she has been on the staff of The Sunday Times and the Evening Standard. Jones writes columns for the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

Early life

Jones is the youngest of seven children of an Army father and a former ballerina.[2] [5] [6] She grew up in the village of Rettendon, near Chelmsford in Essex,[7] and attended Brentwood County High School for Girls.[8] Jones studied journalism at the London College of Printing.

According to Jones, "I was six when I first realised how hideous I looked",[9] and she has been an anorexic since the age of about 11.[10] By the age of 17 she wished to look like model Janice Dickinson.[10] Discovering Vogue magazine in Southend Public Library in August 1977, was a revelation for her. It "wasn’t just a magazine to me, its cover was a mirror: how I wanted to look, dress and be".[11]

Early career

After leaving college, she began to work for Company 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[12] in 1998.

In April 1999, Jones was appointed editor of the UK edition of Marie Claire. 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.[13] Faced by a declining circulation,[13] [14] she was sacked from this post two years later[15] for refusing to use bulimic models[16] and (according to Jones) listing in the magazine the freebies she had been offered in the previous month.[2] She has continued to write about the fashion industry.

Confessional writing and marriage

During her period at Marie Claire, Jones began to write about her life,[10] and met the journalist Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal, who had been sent by BBC Radio in 2000 to interview her.[17] Jones embarked on a seven-year relationship with him, and they married in 2002; after a "disastrous" marriage, it ended in 2007.[18] In a 2011 Mail column, Jones admitted to stealing Dhaliwal's sperm in a (failed) attempt to become pregnant.[19] [20] In an article for The Telegraph in July 2021, Dhaliwal wrote of their marriage ceremony as "an occasion I felt swindled into, having never proposed. She arranged it without my knowledge; I found out when I discovered a receipt for the country estate. Confronted with it, she declared she’d already told the world in her column – which I no longer read – and would look a fool. She then broke down in tears, robbing me of my anger as I comforted her and agreed."[21] Dhaliwal and Jones disputed aspects of their relationship in the press while they were still together.[22]

Later career

After four years as Life & Style editor at the London Evening Standard from 2002,[12] she left to join the Daily Mail as Style editor in early 2006 at twice her previous salary.[23] [24] She also writes for British Airways' High Life magazine on destinations and hotels.

Notable articles and reception

Jones says that 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..."[2] Jones has been described by Deborah Orr as a "very gifted writer and apparently very flaky human being".[25] In July 2013, Decca Aitkenhead wrote that "no one deconstructs (fashion's) futile, psychologically destructive false promises more forensically than Jones – and in a mass market tabloid at that".[10]

Often considered somewhat self-obsessed, with the veracity of her confessions questioned,[26] [27] 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."[16] Jones wrote about an alleged current love interest, the Rock Star (RS), in her weekly diary in The Mail on Sundays You magazine from July 2010. Despite dropping many heavy hints that the "rock star" was Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, in a November 2011 interview in the London Evening Standard, she finally admitted it is not Kerr.[28]

Until the end of October 2012, Jones lived in Brushford, just south of Dulverton, Somerset.[5] 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."[29] After moving to the Yorkshire Dales, a Mail on Sunday column on her surroundings was the subject of four articles in The Yorkshire Post in September 2016.[30]

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.[31]

In June 2012, she attracted attention by slating Holly Willoughby for posting a photo of herself on Twitter without makeup as a "betrayal to women". This Morning TV co-presenter Phillip Schofield defended Willoughby, saying "I swear there can be no greater force against all womankind than Liz Jones. She is inconsistent, bitter, nasty and unhinged".[32]

Other activities

At the beginning of January 2014, Jones became a contestant in Celebrity Big Brother 13 on Channel 5 TV with comedian Jim Davidson, rapper Dappy, boxer Evander Holyfield, among others.[33] She was evicted from the house on 22 January 2014 after receiving the fewest votes to remain.[34]

Her first novel, 8½ Stone, was published in 2020.[35]

Personal life

Jones says she has been vegetarian since the age of eleven.[36] She was married to journalist Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal between 2002 and 2007. Jones was declared bankrupt in May 2017.[37]

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. For Elizabeth as her first name see News: Jones. Liz. Why Liz is in a tizz. Evening Standard. London. 19 November 2003. 22 August 2017.
  2. News: Ross. Deborah. Liz Jones: 'All writers betray people. It's tricky' . The Independent. 9 July 2010. 4 November 2011.
  3. News: Greenslade . Roy . Liz Jones plumbs the depths in report on Joanna Yeates murder. The Guardian. 19 January 2011. 4 November 2011.
  4. Web site: Harwood . Jonathan . Twitter turns on the Mail's Liz Jones over Jo Yeates killing . The First Post. UK. 17 January 2011. 4 November 2011.
  5. News: Cooke. Rachel . Liz Jones talks to Rachel Cooke about the compulsion to tell all . The Observer . 2 August 2009. 4 November 2011.
  6. News: Aitkenhead . Decca . 2013-07-06 . Liz Jones: 'My whole anti-mums thing is jealousy. I've got nothing. Just work' . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-06-06 . 0261-3077.
  7. Web site: LIZ JONes's DIARY: In which I want my forever home . 12 July 2020 .
  8. Web site: The Essex school where Pixie Lott, Jonjo Shelvey and Liz Jones were pupils . 8 May 2022 .
  9. News: Jones. Liz. What I see in the mirror. The Guardian. 10 March 2007. 22 August 2017.
  10. News: Aitkenhead. Decca. Liz Jones: 'My whole anti-mums thing is jealousy. I've got nothing. Just work'. The Guardian. 6 July 2013. 22 August 2017.
  11. News: Liz Jones, journalism's mistress of self-loathing. London Evening Standard. 4 July 2013. 22 August 2017. Jones tells Decca Aitkenhead that she discovered Vogue at 17, in other words a year or so earlier.
  12. News: Byrne. Ciar. Jones to show her style at Standard. The Guardian. 4 September 2002. 4 November 2011.
  13. News: Jane. Thynne. Me and Bridget Jones. The Independent . 3 April 2001.
  14. An article from this period asserts that circulation initially rose after Jones became editor. See News: Vernon. Polly. The girls can't help it. The Guardian. 2 March 2000.
  15. Liz Jones's Diary: How One Single Girl Got Married p. 70
  16. News: Gold. Tanya. Give Liz Jones a break!. The Guardian. 22 September 2009. 4 November 2011.
  17. News: Eyre. Hermione. Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal: Me & Missus Jones - Profiles - People . https://web.archive.org/web/20081227073953/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/nirpal-singh-dhaliwal-me-amp-missus-jones-472395.html . dead . 27 December 2008 . The Independent . 2 April 2006. 4 November 2011.
  18. News: Summersley. Victoria. Hari. Johann. Liz and Nirpal: The last argument. https://web.archive.org/web/20100818013046/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/liz-and-nirpal-the-last-argument-450421.html . 18 August 2010. The Independent. dead. 26 May 2007.
  19. News: I sold my soul... now I'm selling my eggs, says Liz Jones. Evening Standard. 10 April 2012. 14 February 2022.
  20. News: Why we shouldn't deride Liz Jones for her sperm-stealing revelation. New Statesman. 3 November 2011. 17 May 2021.
  21. News: Dhaliwal. Nirpal. The toxic truth about my age-gap relationship – and why older women escape moral scrutiny. The Telegraph. 31 July 2021. 14 February 2022.
  22. News: Seal. Rebecca. The ex-files. The Guardian. 13 May 2007. 14 February 2022.
  23. News: Day. Julia . Jones joins Mail as style editor . The Guardian . 6 March 2006. 4 November 2011.
  24. News: Thynne. Jane. Is Paul Dacre the new Roman Abramovich?. The Independent on Sunday. 29 April 2006. 10 March 2017.
  25. News: Orr. Deborah. Liz Jones and the face-lift that says it all | Fashion . The Guardian . 5 June 2011. 4 November 2011.
  26. News: Odone. Cristina. So much more than a marriage of inconvenience . The Telegraph. 25 April 2006. 4 November 2011.
  27. Web site: Hoggard. Liz. The columnist, her 'rock star' boyfriend and an internet gossip frenzy. London Evening Standard . 23 June 2011. 22 August 2017.
  28. News: Godwin. Richard. 'I sold my soul... now I'm selling my eggs', says Liz Jones. London Evening Standard. 21 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20140106121802/http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/i-sold-my-soul-now-im-selling-my-eggs-says-liz-jones-6370276.html. 6 January 2014. dead.
  29. News: Alexander. Jane. Why Liz Jones is wrong about Exmoor . https://web.archive.org/web/20090826190945/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/6061835/Why-Liz-Jones-is-wrong-about-Exmoor.html . dead . 26 August 2009 . The Telegraph. 22 August 2009. 4 November 2011.
  30. News: Marley. Jules. Tell Liz Jones I would rather have a White Rose than a Waitrose. The Yorkshire Post. 25 September 2016. 12 October 2016. News: Dowle. Jayne. For the benefit of Liz Jones, here's the Yorkshire countryside's natural order.... The Yorkshire Post. 22 September 2016. 12 October 2016. News: Smith. Stephanie. Someone give Waitrose-loving Liz Jones a reality show, please. The Yorkshire Post. 20 September 2016. 12 October 2016. News: Barnett. Ben. Who'd live in the 'sexist' Yorkshire Dales? There's not even a Waitrose. The Yorkshire Post. 18 September 2016. 12 October 2016.
  31. News: Coward. Ros. Sending Liz Jones to report on Somalia is grotesque. The Guardian. 1 August 2011. 4 November 2011.
  32. News: Percival. Ashley. Phillip Schofield Sticks Up For Holly Willoughby Over Liz Jones' Damning 'Daily Mail' Article. The Huffington Post. 28 June 2012. 29 June 2012.
  33. News: Plunkett. John. Celebrity Big Brother 2014: Liz Jones and Evander Holyfield enter the ring. The Guardian. 3 January 2013.
  34. News: Bieber. Nicholas. Day 19: Liz Jones evicted from Celebrity Big Brother, Luisa gets punished for rule breaking and Ollie gets upset with Sam. Cambridge News. 22 January 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140124003447/http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Entertainment/Television/Reality-TV/Big-Brother/DAY-19-Liz-Jones-evicted-from-Celebrity-Big-Brother-Luisa-gets-punished-for-rule-breaking-and-Ollie-gets-upset-with-Sam-20140122215942.htm. 24 January 2014.
  35. News: Ross. Deborah. Liz Jones on anorexia, bankruptcy, sex, infidelity, self-loathing – and her debut novel. The Times. 9 May 2020. 14 February 2022. subscription.
  36. Book: Jones , Liz . Liz Jones. 2013. Girl Least Likely To. 3. Please excuse Lizzie, she has a persistent verucca. UK. Simon & Schuster. 77 . 978-1-47110-197-7.
  37. News: Ponsford. Dominic. Mail on Sunday columnist Liz Jones reveals she has been declared bankrupt. Press Gazette. 2 January 2018. 2 January 2018.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Liz Jones".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.