Janie Hampton

Janie Hampton (born as Anderson, 14 March 1952) is a British author, best known for her biography of Joyce Grenfell and social history books The Austerity Olympics and How the Girl Guides Won the War.

Biography

Janie Hampton is the penultimate daughter of the author Verily Anderson and the playwright Donald Clive Anderson. Her siblings include the author Rachel Anderson and the television producer Eddie Anderson. She has been married since 1971 and has four children.[1]

While living on a small-holding in Shropshire in the 1970s[2] Hampton designed and made clothes that she sold in London, Los Angeles and Rome. Her customers included musician Robert Plant and author Louisa Young.[3]

In 1980 the Hamptons moved to Zimbabwe,[4] where she studied for a BA in Human Sciences,[5] wrote books and articles on health issues,[6][7] and was the Women's Editor of the Manica Post.[8] After her return to Britain in 1985, she produced The Medical Programme and Focus on Africa for the BBC World Service. In 1988 she gained an MSc in International Health from the Institute of Child Health, London. Her thesis was on the health and development of pre-school children, researched while living in the remote Honde Valley, Zimbabwe[9]

In 1991, the British Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development) commissioned Hampton to help develop its policy on international women's health. She then planned health projects in Africa, South America and Asia.[10]

In 1992 Hampton was elected onto the founding committee of Writers in Oxford and became its chair in 2003.[11][12] As part of the 2001 Year of the Artist she was the first Arts Council-sponsored writer-in-residence in a pub.[13][14] She is a member of the Combination Room at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.[15]

In 2009, she founded the Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust, which aims to restore the ship MV Chauncy Maples into a mobile clinic for Lake Malawi.[16] She resigned from the trust in 2013.[17] In 2014, she became patron of the Malawi Association UK Achievers Award.

Journalism, broadcasting and public speaking

Hampton has written articles for various newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian,[18][19] Daily Telegraph,[20] The Times,[21] Independent,[22][23] Spare Rib,[24] Total Politics,[25] New Statesman,[26] Sunday Telegraph,[27] and The Author.[28][29] In 2011, she was appointed Olympics Correspondent of The Oldie magazine.[30] Hampton has been a journalist in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda[31] and was interviewed about the history of the Olympic Games in London on more than 35 radio stations and 12 television channels, including BBC Breakfast[32] and Newsnight.[33]

Hampton has spoken at Cliveden House,[34] The Oldie literary luncheons[35] and many literary festivals.[36]

Books

A Family Outing in Africa described the Hampton's journey from Zimbabwe to the UK via Zaire (on public transport with her three children) and was published by Macmillan in 1988.[37] She continued to write about health issues throughout the 1990s and was also increasingly successful as an author of social history. In 2002, her biography of writer and actor Joyce Grenfell was published to critical acclaim.[38][39][40][41]

The Austerity Olympics, a social history of the London Olympics of 1948, was introduced by Sebastian Coe and quoted by many Olympic observers,[42] including Mayor of London Boris Johnson[43] and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.[44] The book was filmed by BBC TV as Bert and Dickie, starring Matt Smith and Geoffrey Palmer.[45][46]

How the Girl Guides Won the War chronicled the role of Guides and Brownies in 20th-century feminist history.[47][48] Hampton's latest two books are about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (Rationing and Revelry) and state visits by members of the British Royal Family (The Royal Tours).

Non-fiction

Books edited by Janie Hampton

Books contributed to by Janie Hampton

Books on health

Children's fiction

References

  1. ↑ "Four generations", Oxford Mail, 28 March 2014.
  2. ↑ "Self-sufficiency", Birmingham Sunday Mercury, 29 September 1973.
  3. ↑ "From rags to riches", Kidderminster Shuttle, 15 August 1978
  4. ↑ A Family Outing in Africa, Macmillan, 1988.
  5. ↑ "Third World Studies for Real", Sesame (Open University), Vol. 1, no. 3, September 1982.
  6. ↑ Utano, Manicaland Provincial Health Authority, 1982–85.
  7. ↑ "How to do it write", Open Eye, 2005.
  8. ↑ "Focus on Women", Manica Post, July 1983 – November 1984.
  9. ↑ ."Play and development in rural Zimbabwean children", Early Child Development and Care, pp. 1–61, Vol. 47, 1989.
  10. ↑ "Friday Life", Oxford Mail, 28 February 2014.
  11. ↑ "The story behind the writers", Oxford Times, 11 October 2002.
  12. ↑ "Happy birthday to writer's group", Oxford Times, 20 November 2012.
  13. ↑ "More print than pint", Oxford Mail, 13 January 2001.
  14. ↑ "Author in pub is novel attraction", Reading Morning Advertiser, 15 January 2001.
  15. ↑ Annual Report, Lucy Cavendish College, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Janie's floating clinic is a dream come true", The Sunday Post, Scotland, 28 June 2013.
  17. ↑ "Janie Hampton announces her retirement from the trust", Chauncy Maples, Lake Malawi's Clinic.
  18. ↑ "The soapbox in the sun", The Guardian, 29 July 1985.
  19. ↑ Janie Hampton, "Lost: one heartfelt tribute", The Guardian, 15 June 2005.
  20. ↑ "So happy to be a refugee", Daily Telegraph, 19 July 1985.
  21. ↑ "Zimbabwe Conscience", The Times, 25 June 2004.
  22. ↑ "Bert Bushnell Obituary", The Independent, 15 February 2010.
  23. ↑ "Martin Adler" (obituary), The Independent, 27 July 2006.
  24. ↑ "Zimbabwe Feminism", Spare Rib, No. 146, September 1984.
  25. ↑ "The 1948 London Olympics", Total Politics, August 2011.
  26. ↑ "Politics bites back in Nairobi", New Statesman, 26 July 1985.
  27. ↑ "Britain's Austerity Olympics", Sunday Telegraph, 19 February 2012.
  28. ↑ "You win some...", The Author, Summer 2009.
  29. ↑ "Post-delivery syndrome", The Author, Spring 2003.
  30. ↑ Jaine Blackman, "Author Janie Hampton – 'Bring on the next chapter'", Oxford Mail, 28 February 2014.
  31. ↑ Family Outing in Africa, Macmillan, 1988.
  32. ↑ Broadcast on 3 August 2012.
  33. ↑ Broadcast on 20 July 2012.
  34. ↑ "Joyce Grenfell and Cliveden", directed by Chris Luscombe, 5 October 2005.
  35. ↑ "Literary luncheons", The Oldie, October 2002 and June 2012.
  36. ↑ "Writing festival has 'em rolling in the aisles", Ely News and Town Crier, 7 May 1998.
  37. ↑ "An Outing in Africa", Daily Mail, July 1985
  38. ↑ "All teeth and limbs", Literary Review, January 2003.
  39. ↑ "Remarkable Joyce", The Oxford Writer, Summer 2003
  40. ↑ "An entertaining Mrs Sloane", Sunday Times, 10 November 2002.
  41. ↑ "Book of the week", The Week, 18 January 2003.
  42. ↑ "On the cheap", The Economist, 2 June 2012.
  43. ↑ "Olympics lessons from when we were really running on empty", Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph, 27 December 2011.
  44. ↑ Richard Williams, "Opening ceremony will not better Beijing, why not?", The Guardian, 20 December 2011.
  45. ↑ "Celebrating Bert and Dickie", Rowing & Regatta, Issue 621, May 2012.
  46. ↑ "How post-war Britain hosted 1948 Games", The Sun, 20 February 2012.
  47. ↑ "The War Guides", The Scotsman, 2 August 2010.
  48. ↑ "Original Girl Power", Sunday Times, 25 July 2010.

External links

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