Allison Pearson

Early life

Born in Carmarthen, Wales, Pearson moved to Burry Port, Carmarthenshire. She attended Market Harborough Upper School (now Robert Smyth School), then Lincoln Christ's Hospital School, both comprehensive schools. She studied English at Clare College, Cambridge, then taught at an inner London school. She also sold advertising.

Journalism and broadcasting

Prior to taking over from Lynda Lee-Potter at the Daily Mail, Pearson was a columnist with London's Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph. She began her career with the Financial Times, where she was a sub-editor, before moving to The Independent and then The Independent on Sunday in 1992. There she was assistant to Blake Morrison before becoming a TV critic, winning the award for Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993. Pearson has presented Channel 4's J'Accuse; BBC Radio 4's The Copysnatchers and participated as a panellist on Late Review, the predecessor of Newsnight Review.

In May 2008, Pearson upset Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, by suggesting her daughter Princess Beatrice was overweight. The Duchess called Pearson for a meeting with herself and her daughter, but Pearson ignored them. On the TV programme This Morning the Duchess attacked the absent columnist.

Pearson ended her column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, when it was said that she was to join The Daily Telegraph, with a column on her experiences of depression. In September 2010, Pearson resumed her role as a columnist with The Daily Telegraph. As of 2015, Pearson was a columnist and chief interviewer of The Daily Telegraph.

Pearson was criticised for a tweet sent less than an hour after the first of the 22 March 2016 Belgian bombings in which she linked them with the case for leaving the European Union, a position she had supported in a column.

Following the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing at the end of a concert, Pearson called for the introduction of internment.

Books

Pearson is the author of a novel, I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), a "chick lit" examination of the pressures of modern motherhood. The book was a bestseller in the UK and the US, selling four million copies, and was made into a film. Pearson was sued by Miramax for non-delivery of a second novel, I Think I Love You, for which she received a US$700,000 advance in 2003. Delivery was due in 2005. The novel I Think I Love You has since been published.

She has since written I Think I Love You (2010), a novel about a teenager's passion for David Cassidy in the 1970s, and the man who is responsible for writing the so-called replies from David Cassidy to the teenage fans, two characters who later meet up again twenty years after experiencing marriage, divorce, and children. The Telegraph praised the novel for its warmth and sincerity; The Guardian declared it an "unrealistic and sappy romance".

A sequel to I Don't Know How She Does It was announced in 2015 with an expected publication in autumn 2016. The novel continues the story of the protagonist Kate Reddy who is now approaching 50 and struggling with bias against older women in the workplace. The book will be published by Borough Press in the U.K. and by St. Martin’s Press in the U.S.

Personal life

Pearson was married to fellow journalist Simon Pearson, in May 1988 in Lincoln. She now lives with Anthony Lane, film critic for The New Yorker. They have a son, (born August 1999), and a daughter, (born January 1996). They have lived in Cambridge since 2003.

Pearson was declared bankrupt on 9 November 2015, following a personal insolvency order made by the High Court of Justice in London on 9 November 2015. The bankruptcy petitioner was the Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs, implying that the case involves unpaid taxes.