Bel Mooney
Encyclopedia
Bel Mooney is an English
journalist and broadcaster born in Liverpool
.
to Gladys Norbury and Edward Mooney. She initially grew up in Liverpool on a council estate called The Green on Queen's Drive
. She passed her eleven plus and went to Aigburth Vale Girls’ High School (merged with another school to become Calderstones School
in 1989). She moved to Wiltshire at the age of fourteen, when her parents bought their first house. She then attended school in Trowbridge
, Wiltshire
, at Trowbridge Girls' High School (merged with a boys' grammar school to become the comprehensive John of Gaunt School in 1974). She passed eight O levels and took English, Latin and Art at A level. She had tried to gain entry to the University of Oxford
but at that time nobody from her girls' grammar school had achieved that. So she went to London and obtained a first class degree in English Language and Literature from University College London
in 1969. She met her first husband and philosophy student, Jonathan Dimbleby
, there when both working on the student magazine called Pi Magazine
and they married in February 1968 in Kensington
after knowing each other for four months.
, the Daily Telegraph Magazine, Cosmopolitan and many others. She has been a regular columnist for The Times
(from 2005-7), The Sunday Times
(from 1982-3) and The Listener (from 1984-6). From 1970-9 she was a freelance journalist. (Her reference to Margaret Thatcher
in Nova
magazine in 1973 as a 'possible future Prime Minister' is believed to have been the first suggestion of its kind in the media.) As well as her fiction (see below) Mooney has written many books, including 'Bel Mooney's Somerset' (1989) and a memoir about love, loss, recovery - and dogs: 'Small Dogs Can Save Your Life' (2010).
. Her novels for adults are The Windsurf Boy, The Anderson Question, The Fourth of July, Lost Footsteps, Intimate Letters and The Invasion of Sand. (She is the author of the best-selling 'Kitty and friends' series of stories for young girls, including I Don’t Want To! and So What, which were inspired by her own daughter, Katherine, or Kitty as she is known. She then went on to write a series of six books inspired by her small dog Bonnie, with titles like 'Big Dog Bonnie' and 'Brave Dog Bonnie'.
, as the name might suggest. She also made many series for Channel 4 (for example 'Mothers By Daughters') and BBC2 (for example, 'Grief') and one-off documentaries on people like Ellen Wilkinson MP and Dora Russell. As the 'story' itself, interviewed many times of radio and television, Mooney has been active in ecological campaigning. In particular she was involved, like her former husband, in the campaign against the Batheaston Bypass in the mid 1990s. During the eighties and nineties she wrote six novels and made many programmes for television and for Radio 4.
, advising readers on emotional and relationship issues, and she contributes other comment articles to the paper.
in 1998 and Liverpool John Moores University
in 2002. 'Devout' Sceptics won a Sandford St Martin Trust award for religious broadcasting, and one children's novel 'The Voices of Silence' won a New York Public Library citation and was shortlisted for a Gold Medal in the State of California.
for thirty-five years when they lived on an organic farm. The couple separated in 2004 after his affair with opera singer Susan Chilcott
; since 2006 they have been divorced. They have two adult children, Kitty (born 1980), a freelance journalist, and Daniel (born 1974), a television producer/director. On September 8, 2007, Mooney married Robin Allison-Smith, a freelance photographer, with whom she lives on the outskirts of Bath.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
journalist and broadcaster born in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
.
Early life
She was born in Broadgreen HospitalBroadgreen Hospital
Broadgreen Hospital is a large teaching hospital located on Thomas Drive, in the suburb of Broadgreen, Liverpool, England, part of the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust...
to Gladys Norbury and Edward Mooney. She initially grew up in Liverpool on a council estate called The Green on Queen's Drive
A5058 road
The A5058 road, known as Queens Drive for much of its length, is a major ring road in Liverpool. It is that part of the A5058 that connects Breeze Hill in Bootle, at the intersection with the A59, with Aigburth Vale in Allerton. The road was designed by civil engineer John Alexander...
. She passed her eleven plus and went to Aigburth Vale Girls’ High School (merged with another school to become Calderstones School
Calderstones School
Calderstones School is an English comprehensive school and specialist science college, located opposite Calderstones Park on Harthill Road in the Liverpool suburb of Allerton.The school's post code is L18 3HS...
in 1989). She moved to Wiltshire at the age of fourteen, when her parents bought their first house. She then attended school in Trowbridge
Trowbridge
Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England, situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, approximately 12 miles southeast of Bath, Somerset....
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, at Trowbridge Girls' High School (merged with a boys' grammar school to become the comprehensive John of Gaunt School in 1974). She passed eight O levels and took English, Latin and Art at A level. She had tried to gain entry to the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
but at that time nobody from her girls' grammar school had achieved that. So she went to London and obtained a first class degree in English Language and Literature from University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
in 1969. She met her first husband and philosophy student, Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, a political commentator and a writer. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of British TV presenter David Dimbleby.-Education:Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a...
, there when both working on the student magazine called Pi Magazine
Pi Magazine
Pi is the name of the official student publications of the University College London Union.-History:Pi was originally launched as a newspaper. In the aftermath of World War II, there was strong popular support amongst college and UCL Union officials for some sort of community project that would...
and they married in February 1968 in Kensington
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....
after knowing each other for four months.
Career
Giving up her idea of postgraduate work, Mooney became a journalist in 1969, contributing first to the Bath Chronicle and the Times Educational Supplement (whilst teaching part time in Bath) then got her first job on Nova Magazine as Assistant to the Editor. In the early seventies, Mooney wrote for the New StatesmanNew Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, the Daily Telegraph Magazine, Cosmopolitan and many others. She has been a regular columnist for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(from 2005-7), The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
(from 1982-3) and The Listener (from 1984-6). From 1970-9 she was a freelance journalist. (Her reference to Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
in Nova
Nova (UK magazine)
Nova, published from March 1965 to October 1975, was a British magazine. It has been described as "a politically radical, beautifully designed, intellectual women's magazine"....
magazine in 1973 as a 'possible future Prime Minister' is believed to have been the first suggestion of its kind in the media.) As well as her fiction (see below) Mooney has written many books, including 'Bel Mooney's Somerset' (1989) and a memoir about love, loss, recovery - and dogs: 'Small Dogs Can Save Your Life' (2010).
Novelist
Having made her name as a journalist, columnist, and broadcaster, she turned her hand to writing fiction for adults and childrenChildren's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. Her novels for adults are The Windsurf Boy, The Anderson Question, The Fourth of July, Lost Footsteps, Intimate Letters and The Invasion of Sand. (She is the author of the best-selling 'Kitty and friends' series of stories for young girls, including I Don’t Want To! and So What, which were inspired by her own daughter, Katherine, or Kitty as she is known. She then went on to write a series of six books inspired by her small dog Bonnie, with titles like 'Big Dog Bonnie' and 'Brave Dog Bonnie'.
Broadcasting
She was a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4 from 1982 until 2008, notably as presenter of Devout Sceptics, a programme devoted to public figures' private beliefs, not necessarily agnostic or atheisticAtheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, as the name might suggest. She also made many series for Channel 4 (for example 'Mothers By Daughters') and BBC2 (for example, 'Grief') and one-off documentaries on people like Ellen Wilkinson MP and Dora Russell. As the 'story' itself, interviewed many times of radio and television, Mooney has been active in ecological campaigning. In particular she was involved, like her former husband, in the campaign against the Batheaston Bypass in the mid 1990s. During the eighties and nineties she wrote six novels and made many programmes for television and for Radio 4.
Daily Mail
In June 2007 she began writing a weekly column for the Saturday edition of the Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, advising readers on emotional and relationship issues, and she contributes other comment articles to the paper.
Awards
She has honorary degrees from the University of BathUniversity of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
in 1998 and Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
in 2002. 'Devout' Sceptics won a Sandford St Martin Trust award for religious broadcasting, and one children's novel 'The Voices of Silence' won a New York Public Library citation and was shortlisted for a Gold Medal in the State of California.
Personal life
Mooney was married to the television journalist Jonathan DimblebyJonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, a political commentator and a writer. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of British TV presenter David Dimbleby.-Education:Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a...
for thirty-five years when they lived on an organic farm. The couple separated in 2004 after his affair with opera singer Susan Chilcott
Susan Chilcott
Susan Chilcott was an English soprano, considered one of the best of her generation. She died of breast cancer at the age of 40...
; since 2006 they have been divorced. They have two adult children, Kitty (born 1980), a freelance journalist, and Daniel (born 1974), a television producer/director. On September 8, 2007, Mooney married Robin Allison-Smith, a freelance photographer, with whom she lives on the outskirts of Bath.
News items
- Frances Hardy. "The anguish, heartache and courage of Bel Mooney" Daily Mail 10 June 2007: Interview with Bel Mooney. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
- Independent March 1998
- Independent January 1993