Jack Monroe

For other people named Jack Monroe, see Jack Monroe (disambiguation).
Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe
Born 1988 (1988)[1]
Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom[1]
Nationality British
Occupation Writer, journalist and campaigner
Years active 2012–present
Children 1
Website www.cookingonabootstrap.com

Jack Monroe (born 1988, Southend-on-Sea) is a writer, journalist and activist. Monroe is known for activism surrounding poverty issues, particularly on hunger relief, and has published a blog and several books of "austerity recipes".

Early life and career

Monroe was born in Southend-on-Sea to Evelyn (née Beatty), a former nurse and David Hadjicostas a British Army soldier, and later fire-fighter, of Greek-Cypriot heritage.[2][3][4] Monroe has three siblings.[5][6]

Described as coming from a working-class background,[7] Monroe passed the 11-plus examinations and attended Westcliff High School for Girls, a grammar school in Westcliff on Sea, before leaving at age 16, "bullied and disillusioned",[8] with insufficient GCSEs to progress to A-level (either 4 and a half or 7, according to different sources).[9][10] Monroe left the family home and began working in a chip shop, before going to work as a call handler for the fire service, a well-paid job which they enjoyed. After having a child, Monroe was unable to arrange the work around childcare responsibilities, and the fire service was unwilling or unable to make adjustments to the working pattern to make continued employment feasible. Monroe resigned the post. It was at this point they changed their name from their birth name to Jack Monroe - 'Jack' being short for "Jack of all trades", their nickname.[8][11]

Monroe spent the following 18 months looking for work, and moved from relative affluence to poverty and financial hardship.[12][13][14][15][16][17] Monroe came to prominence in the media through writing the blog A Girl Called Jack, sharing cheap recipes created as a single parent with a young child, and aiming to provide family meals for less than £10 per week.[18] In December 2015 the blog was renamed to Cooking on a Bootstrap.

In 2012 Monroe became a weekly columnist for The Echo,[19] and in February 2013 was taken on by the same as a trainee reporter - the timing was fortunate, as Monroe was having difficulty affording nursery fees. Monroe was later retained as an unpaid columnist for The Huffington Post, before signing a publishing deal with Penguin Group.[20] The book deal, reported as worth £25,000, resulted in housing benefit being cut off and Monroe came close to being evicted, which led to moving into cheaper accommodation. Despite working every day, Monroe was unable to make ends meet.[8] By January 2014, finances had improved, and Monroe was able to move into a small 2 bedroom flat with their son.[21]

Monroe formerly wrote a twice monthly food and recipe column for The Guardian[22] and additionally contributed a number of political columns, as well as being featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker. Monroe has written several budget cooking recipe books.[23][24]

Monroe appeared in a Sainsbury's advertising campaign, parting company after a dispute with the columnist Sarah Vine. Monroe donated the fees from the campaign to Oxfam.

Monroe appeared on BBC television's late night political programme This Week in June 2015.[25]

Speaking in 2015, Monroe described life as having "changed beyond recognition", but said that they are still affected by their experience of poverty.[23]

Campaigning and politics

Monroe has been an active campaigner for a number of causes in the UK, particularly those around poverty and hunger, campaigning alongside organisations such as Unite, The Trussell Trust, Child Poverty Action Group and Oxfam.[26][27][28]

Monroe was a supporter of the Labour Party, and appeared in a Labour campaign video in October 2013.[29] Monroe left the party in March 2015 after disagreeing with its rhetoric on immigration.[30] and became a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.[31]

In April 2016 Monroe appeared online supporting the Women's Equality Party.[32]

Personal life

Monroe is non-binary transgender, formally came out in October 2015,[33] and goes by singular they pronouns, rather than "he" or "she".[13] Earlier in 2015, Monroe had initiated legal action after the Daily Mail claimed that "Jack" was not Monroe's "real" name,[34] and has requested that their birth name not be used by the media.[13]

Monroe has spoken of beginning to identify as trans from an early age, a process complicated by identification as non-binary. Monroe did not take part in a fire service passing out ceremony in 2008, because protocol would have required them (then identifying as a woman) to wear a skirt.[35] Monroe kept their birthname while working at the fire service, concerned over "the potential for deadnaming and bullying in a not-particularly-tolerant organisation. Not a great place to be gay, let alone genderqueer." During this period, Monroe also had a brief relationship with a man (a close friend), which resulted in a son.[36]

On leaving the fire service, Monroe adopted a short haircut and took the gender ambiguous forename of "Jack".[21] They began identifying to friends and family as a lesbian woman, and began a long-term relationship with a woman; the relationship ended shortly after Monroe told their partner they were considering a mastectomy.[35] Monroe was still careful at this point to downplay any suggestions of gender ambiguity, and in an interview in February 2014 described themselves as a "lefty, liberal, lezzer cook" who had reassured their parents that they identified as female. "I was like, no, I'm a little bit tomboyish, a little bit butch. But I have no immediate plans to transition."[21]

In 2013, Monroe was ranked No. 19 in The Independent on Sunday's Pink List of influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom.[37] In 2014 it was reported that Monroe and their son were living with Monroe's then-girlfriend[38] Allegra McEvedy, and McEvedy's daughter in London; the relationship ended in October 2015.[39]

In 2014, Sarah Vine (wife of the senior Conservative politician Michael Gove) criticised Monroe in the Daily Mail for allegedly choosing a life of poverty and using the death of David Cameron's son for political purposes. The Independent described this as a "caustic attack", and Monroe replied that the column was "homophobic, transphobic, deadnaming [and] ignorant" on Twitter.[40] Monroe denied that Sainsbury's supermarket reportedly ended their relationship with Monroe in light of Monroe's original tweet.[40] Sainsbury's offered comment to The Spectator, stating that "Jack Monroe blogs independently. Sainsbury’s is not a political organisation and we certainly don’t share her views."[41]

The University of Essex announced in May 2015 that it would be awarding Monroe an honorary degree.[42] During the same month, Monroe threatened legal action against Katie Hopkins after she posted a tweet in which she appeared to accuse Monroe of vandalising a war memorial. Hopkins subsequently removed the tweet and said she had confused Monroe with the journalist Laurie Penny.[43] Monroe initiated a libel action against Hopkins in January 2016.[44]

References

  1. 1 2 Monroe, Jack. "About Jack". A Girl Called Jack. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Olivia Blair (19 January 2016). "Jack Monroe sues Katie Hopkins for vandalism accusation tweet". The Independent.
  3. ↑ "The safeguarding blog: ESAB Introducing...David Hadjicostas MBE - Essex County Fire & Rescue Service". essexsafeguarding.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Death threats, sexism and online abuse...three Essex women tell us of the downside to overnight success on TV". The Echo. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  5. ↑ ESAB. "The safeguarding blog". essexsafeguarding.blogspot.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Joanna Moorhead. "The toughest love". the Guardian.
  7. ↑ Patrick Butler. "Jack Monroe: the face of modern poverty". the Guardian.
  8. 1 2 3 Patrick Butler. "Jack Monroe: the face of modern poverty". the Guardian.
  9. ↑ "My 49p lunch with a girl called Jack". Telegraph.co.uk. 4 March 2013.
  10. ↑ "ABOUT JACK". COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP.
  11. ↑ "My 49p lunch with a girl called Jack". Telegraph.co.uk. 4 March 2013.
  12. ↑ "Dear Richard Littlejohn – here are all the things you got wrong about me". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  13. 1 2 3 Monroe, Jack. "Please don't call me A Girl Called Jack. I have something to tell you." (personal blog, October 22, 2015). Accessed 23 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "My 49p lunch with a girl called Jack". The Daily Telegraph. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  15. ↑ Fisher, Lucy. "Jack Monroe enjoys the taste of success but she won't let it go to her head". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  16. ↑ Fisher, Lucy (16 February 2014). "Jack Monroe enjoys the taste of success but she won't let it go to her head". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  17. ↑ Monroe, Jack (23 August 2012). "Unemployed Mum Sells Off Belongings – Essex Enquirer". A Girl Called Jack. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013 – via Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Monroe, Jack (20 July 2013). "How to eat on £10 a week: the shopping list and the recipes". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "Jack is Essex girl at her best". The Echo. 1 November 2012. Part 1, Part 2.
  20. ↑ Owen, Pamela (19 May 2013). "Mum who fed son on £10 a week lands book deal for her breadline recipes". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  21. 1 2 3 Lucy Fisher. "Jack Monroe enjoys the taste of success but she won't let it go to her head". the Guardian.
  22. ↑ Monroe, Jack. "Austerity bites". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  23. 1 2 Monroe, Jack. "Five recipes from Jack Monroe's new cookbook". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  24. ↑ "Jack Monroe". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  25. ↑ Nelson, Sara C (26 June 2015). "Jack Monroe Clashes With Michael Portillo Over Child Poverty Amid 'Up The Duff' Benefits Row". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  26. ↑ "Child Poverty Action Group Ambassadors - Jack Monroe". CPAG.
  27. ↑ "Oxfam Policy and Practice Blog - Jack Monroe". Oxfam.
  28. ↑ "A little bit about me". A Girl Called Jack.
  29. ↑ Perraudin, Frances (17 March 2015). "Jack Monroe joins Green party". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  30. ↑ Roisin, O'Connor (18 March 2015). "Labour supporter Jack Monroe switches allegiance to Green Party". The Independent. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  31. ↑ "Reaction to Jack Monroe Demonstrates How Women's Political Views are Still Dismissed". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  32. ↑ Jack Monroe (27 April 2016). Jack Monroe: Give half your votes to equality on 5 May - WE think that's fair #VoteWE (Video). Women's Equality Channel via YouTube. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  33. ↑ "Jack Monroe on Twitter: "*deep breath* Yes I am transgender. Not all trans people transition from one binary gender to another, and it's #NationalComingOutDay."". Twitter. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2015-10-18.
  34. ↑ Monroe, Jack (20 October 2015). "Being non-binary: I’m not A Girl Called Jack any more, but I’m not a boy either". New Statesman. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  35. 1 2 "Being non-binary: I’m not A Girl Called Jack any more, but I’m not a boy either".
  36. ↑ "Jack Monroe". 8 steps from shore.
  37. ↑ "The Independent on Sunday's Pink List 2013". The Independent on Sunday. 13 October 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  38. ↑ Monroe, Jack (7 October 2015). "Jack Monroe on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  39. ↑ Lamont, Tom (19 October 2014). "OFM awards 2014 best food blog: Jack Monroe". The Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  40. 1 2 "Sarah Vine criticises lesbian mother Jack Monroe: 'If she was unsure about her sexuality, she should have taken greater precautions'". The Independent. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  41. ↑ "Sainsbury’s refuse to side with Jack Monroe after she tweets about PM’s late son". The Spectator, Steerpike blog. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  42. ↑ "Honorary Graduands Announced". University of Essex. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  43. ↑ Ninias, Helen (19 May 2015). "Katie Hopkins and Jack Monroe embroiled in Twitter row as the cook threatens to sue the columnist". Independent. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  44. ↑ Martinson, Jane (18 January 2016). "Katie Hopkins sued by Jack Monroe over vandalism accusation". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
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