Harriett Gilbert

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Harriett Gilbert
Born (1948-08-25) August 25, 1948 (age 75)
Hornsey, London, England
Alma materRose Bruford College
Occupation(s)Writer, academic and broadcaster
Parent

Harriett Sarah Gilbert (born 25 August 1948) is an English writer, academic and broadcaster, particularly of arts and book programmes on the BBC World Service. She is the daughter of the writer Michael Gilbert. Besides World Book Club on the World Service, she also presents A Good Read on BBC Radio 4. Before the programme was cancelled, she also presented the BBC World Service programme The Strand.

Biography[edit]

Born in Hornsey, London, Gilbert was educated at the French Lycée in London and at a succession of boarding schools. "Growing Pains" was her contribution to Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties (1985), a collection of autobiographical writing.[1] After graduating from drama school, she worked as an actor.[2] She also worked as a nanny, a waitress, an artist's model and a clerk-typist. She began to write in her twenties.[3]

She nominated A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes, first read to her by her father when she was eight, as a life-changing book.[4] The one piece of advice her father, the writer Michael Gilbert, gave her about writing was: "For God's sake, don't use adverbs."[5]

Career[edit]

From 1983 to 1988, she was literary editor of the New Statesman and, before that, of City Limits (1981–83).[2] She has also contributed to Time Out, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.

From 1992, she lectured in the Department of Journalism at the City University, London, where until 2008 she was also the programme director of the MA Creative writing (novels) course.[6]

She wrote two short animated films, directed by Marjut Rimminen: The Stain (1992) and Many Happy Returns (1997).

Gilbert presents one programme on BBC World Service radio: World Book Club, broadcast on the first Saturday in each month. About presenting for the World Service, Gilbert has said: "I think I'm doing the dream job, I just love it, and I can't think of anywhere else I'd like to be."[7]

Gilbert has introduced the World Service arts documentary series Close Up.[8] In 2008 she stood in as presenter of the arts programme The Ticket.[9][failed verification] She previously presented the World Service's dedicated book programme The Word.[10] Besides this she has presented arts programmes for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four television.

In 2011, she replaced Sue MacGregor as presenter of the Radio 4 book programme A Good Read.[11]

Writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen called her "one of the very best presenters of arts programmes on radio or TV".[12] The Financial Times said of her, "the splendid Harriett Gilbert [...] painfully shows up certain would-be arty Radio 4 colleagues".[13]

She is the author of six novels, including Hotels With Empty Rooms and The Riding Mistress. Her non-fiction books include A Women's History of Sex and The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola. She scripted the short animated film The Stain (1991).[14][15]

As of 2009, although she has not published a novel since 1983 she hoped to return to writing.[16]

She was a judge of the 2011 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.[17]

Personal life[edit]

She comes from a family of writers: her father Michael Gilbert wrote crime fiction; her paternal grandfather, Bernard Gilbert, was a poet, novelist and playwright; her paternal grandmother, Berwyn Cuthbert, was a journalist; and her younger brother, Gerard Gilbert, is also a journalist.[18] Harriett Gilbert lives in London with her painter husband, Robin Hazlewood.[18]

Bibliography[edit]

  • I Know Where I've Been – Harper and Row (USA) (1972). ISBN 0-06-011522-X
  • Hotels With Empty Rooms – Harpercollins (1973). ISBN 0-06-011519-X
  • An Offence Against the Persons – Hodder & Stoughton (1974). ISBN 0-340-18520-1
  • Given the Ammunition – Harper and Row (1976). ISBN 0-06-011514-9 (published in the UK as Tide Race – Constable (1977). ISBN 0-09-461570-5)
  • Running Away - Harper and Row (USA) (1979). ISBN 978-006021972-7 – a novel for young adults
  • The Riding Mistress – Constable (1983). ISBN 0-09-464990-1
  • "Growing Pains" in Liz Heron (ed.), Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties – Virago (1985). ISBN 0-86068-596-9 – autobiographical essay
  • A Women's History of Sex – Pandora (1987) (illustrated by Christine Roche). ISBN 0-86358-142-0
  • The Sexual Imagination: From Acker to Zola – A Feminist Companion – Jonathan Cape (1993). ISBN 0-224-03535-5 (published in the US as Fetishes, Florentine Girdles, and Other Explorations into the Sexual Imagination – Harpercollins (1994). ISBN 0-06-273313-3)
  • Writing for Journalists – Routledge (1999) (with Wynford Hicks and Sally Adams). ISBN 0-415-18445-2

References[edit]

  1. ^ Heron, Liz (ed.), Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties, Virago, 1985.
  2. ^ a b "Harriett Gilbert: A Good Read". BBC. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  3. ^ BBC World Service profile. Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Life Changing Reviews Archived 5 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Daily Telegraph obituary of Michael Gilbert, 10 February 2006.
  6. ^ City university page. Archived 18 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Meet the Presenter – Harriett Gilbert", BBC World Service. Archived 8 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "BBC World Service - Close Up, Songs of the Earth: USA". BBC. 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 19 July 2016.
  9. ^ The Ticket
  10. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read - Harriett Gilbert". BBC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  11. ^ Dowell, Ben (17 May 2011). "Gilbert to front R4's Good Read". Broadcast.
  12. ^ Michael Rosen website[dead link]
  13. ^ Martin Hoyle, "Radio choice", Financial Times, 1 November 2008.(subscription required)
  14. ^ IMDb The Stain
  15. ^ Internet Archive
  16. ^ "BBC’s Bush House beckons writing tutor", 26 March 2009. Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Flood, Alison (11 April 2011). "Orhan Pamuk leads shortlist for Independent foreign fiction prize". The Guardian.
  18. ^ a b "A Good Read". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 19 October 2023.

Further reading[edit]

  • Elizabeth Sleeman (2003) International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004, Routledge, ISBN 1-85743-179-0

External links[edit]

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