Liz Hodgkinson

Liz Hodgkinson
Born 1945
St Neots,Cambridgeshire, England
Occupation Journalist, author
Nationality British
Education Huntingdon Grammar School
Alma mater Durham University
Period 1966–present
Genre Health, Lifestyle, Biography, Property
Website
www.lizhodgkinson.com

Liz Hodgkinson is a prolific author and journalist who has written more than 50 books,[1][2] and many of her books have been translated into over 20 languages. She has also written countless articles, for most of the major national newspapers in London and for magazines for women, and taught journalism for a decade.

Early life

Liz was born Elizabeth Garrett,[3] and grew up,in the small Cambridgeshire town of St Neots.[4]

She attended Huntingdon Grammar School, which was co-educational and which is now named Hinchingbrooke School.[4][5] As she complains on her personal website's blog, although she would have liked to try to go to Oxford University, it was actually considered impossible for a girl to get to Oxford or Cambridge from her coed grammar school, although some boys got there. Because it was thought a total impossibility, girls did not even try. She has written that her parents would have been happy enough for her to leave school at 16 and train as a secretary. "They had no idea of higher education or careers." However, she wanted more from a career, so she attended Durham University where she studied English.[6]

Career

After a very short stint teaching, Liz became a freelance reporter/columnist. At first, in the years 1966–1970, she worked in Newcastle upon Tyne in north-east England, on the Thomson Newspapers the Evening Chronicle, the Newcastle Journal, and the Sunday Sun.

During these years Liz married Neville Hodgkinson, also a journalist, who would also become a Daily Mail science and medical columnist and author of books. Liz gave birth to their two sons Tom and Will, both of whom grew up to be journalists and authors like both of their parents before them.

Then the family moved to London, to a house in Richmond, and (like her husband) Liz got a series of jobs in Fleet Street. In 1971-1972, Liz was Deputy Editor of the mother and baby magazine Modern Mother (long since defunct), and then in 1972-3 she worked as a columnist on the London Evening News.[1] She then worked on four national newspapers: the Sunday People, the Sun, the Daily Mail, and the Times, where she was Women's Editor for a time during 1986. After that, in 1986 she became a freelance journalist, writing for the Times, The Guardian, The Independent, the London Evening Standard, and again for the Daily Mail.[1]

During her career as a journalist and columnist writing for newspapers, Liz Hodgkinson began writing books, while continuing writing for newspapers.

Using her long and wide experienced as a journalist, she taught beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes in journalism at City Literary Institute for 10 years (1995-2005). One of her books, Ladies of the Street, was about the women who transformed journalism in Britain, from the heart of London in Fleet Street, from the late 19th century to the present day.

She has written books mostly on four main subject areas, over time: first health; then lifestyle, including topics around religion and special ways of life (influenced by her by then ex-husband Neville's involvement with Indian religion); then biography, particularly of some individuals with changing sexuality; and latterly, as a complete change, real estate and property matters. (See the list.)

She continues to contribute to many publications and websites. She is currently writing for the Daily Mail’s Femail pages, the Daily Telegraph, and the magazines House Beautiful, The Lady, and Woman.[1]

Later life

In the 1980s Liz's husband Neville became involved with the Brahma Kumaris religious movement. It began in 1981 but it was 7 years before, when their sons had reached adulthood, although he writes that he deeply loved his wife, the marriage ended in divorce.[7] He moved to the Brahma Kumaris retreat centre at Nuneham House, Oxfordshire.

She had always felt sad and somehow slightly cheated at not getting into Oxford at the age of 18 but was delighted to move to that city in her older years after 36 years in London and then (from 2006) three years in Worthing.[4]

In the late 1980s, possibly as part of this personal crisis, although theirs was an amicable divorce,[4] ahe began to think about the subject of how people can deal with such situations, and published a controversial book on celibacy as a solution to personal problems. She followed that with Bodyshock, which is said by some reviewers to be the best journalism book on transsexuality.

She has seen her two sons become successful journalists and authors, and they have (as of late 2016) between them given her five grandchildren. After her divorce, she became friends with journalist John Sandilands, then saw him as her partner; and for many years they shared a holiday flat in Worthing, West Sussex; but she has lived alone since his death in 2004. In 2006, with Liz having lived in London for 36 years, the Worthing flat became her main home for three years. However, in September 2009 she left Worthing to live in Central North Oxford.

She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Guild of Health Writers and the National Landlords’ Association.

Bibliography

Biographical

Health

Lifestyle

Property

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Liz Hodgkinson at www.linkedin.com
  2. ↑ A Gender Variance Who's Who
  3. ↑ Liz's August 2015 Telegraph article about a BBC drama about the Bloomsbury group
  4. 1 2 3 4 Biography on www.lizhodgkinson.com
  5. ↑ Hinchingbrooke School website's Liz Hodgkinson page
  6. ↑ Liz's Blog
  7. ↑ Neville Hodgkinson writing on the Impact of the Spiritual Journey on his Close Relationships

External links

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