Allison Pearson

{{hatnote|For the American scholar, see Allison W. Pearson. For the accused witch, see Alison Pearson (accused witch).}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Allison Pearson

| birth_name = Judith Allison Lobbett

| birth_place = Carmarthen, Wales

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1960|07|22}}

| education = Market Harborough Upper School
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School

| alma_mater = Clare College, Cambridge

| employer = The Daily Telegraph

| spouse = {{marriage|Simon Pearson|1988}}

| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Bookbits - 2011-02-16 Allison Pearson-I Think I Love You.vorb.oga|title=Allison Pearson talks about I Think I Love You on Bookbits radio|type=|description=}}

}}

Judith Allison Pearson (née Lobbett;{{cite news |title=none |newspaper=Private Eye |date=27 May 2008 }} born 22 July 1960) is a British columnist and author.{{cite web |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2011/03/11/debut-novel-on-david-cassidy-crush-get-the-movie-treatment-91466-28319630/ |title=Teenage crush inspires new novel on David Cassidy |author=Rachel Mainwaring |access-date=7 July 2011 |date=11 March 2011 |work=WalesOnline }}{{Cite news |author=Alison Flood |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/08/allison-pearson-heroine-middle-age-i-don-t-know-how-she-does-it |title=Allison Pearson revisits bestselling heroine in middle age |work=The Guardian |date=8 April 2015 }} Pearson has worked for British newspapers such as the Daily Mail, The Independent, the Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, and the Financial Times. She has also worked as a presenter for Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4. Pearson's chick lit novel was published in 2002; a film adaptation with the same title, I Don't Know How She Does It, was released in 2011.

Pearson campaigned in favour of Brexit and in 2016 described Brussels as the jihadist capital of Europe. She has criticised the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and opposed transgender rights, describing them as a "an evil trans ideology".

Early life

Born in Carmarthen, Pearson moved to Burry Port, Carmarthenshire as a young child. She lived in Leicestershire, and attended Market Harborough Upper School (now Robert Smyth School). Her family moved to Washdyke Lane in Nettleham, where she attended Lincoln Christ's Hospital School,Lincolnshire Echo Monday 20 February 1978, page 6 and won a prize for History in the sixth form;Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 23 March 1978, page 7 she gained A-levels in English, History and French.Lincolnshire Echo Saturday 19 August 1978, page 7

She studied English at Clare College, Cambridge,{{Cite web |title=Clare College elects next Master |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/clare-college-elects-next-master |date=2013-05-12 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=University of Cambridge}}{{cite web |url=http://www.clarealumni.com/?sid=845&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1662&ecid=1662&crid=0&calpgid=15&calcid=778 |title=Hollywood stardom for novel by Clare alumna |date=26 January 2011 |publisher=Clare College Alumni Association |access-date=7 July 2011}} graduating with a lower second class degree (2:2).{{cite book |title=The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, Supplement 1981–1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=354}}

Career

=Journalism=

Pearson 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 television critic, winning the award for Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993.

Pearson was a columnist with London's Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, then took over from Lynda Lee-Potter at the Daily Mail. Pearson ended her column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, when it was said that she was to join The Daily Telegraph.{{cite news |author=Roy Greenslade |author-link=Roy Greenslade |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/apr/19/dailymail-dailytelegraph |title=Telegraph woos Oborne and Pearson to quit the Daily Mail |work=The Guardian |date=19 April 2010 }}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=30 April 2010 |title=Allison Pearson returns to Daily Telegraph |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/allison-pearson-returns-to-daily-telegraph/ |access-date=23 April 2024 |website=Press Gazette}} In September 2010, Pearson resumed her role as a columnist with The Daily Telegraph.{{cite news |author=Eleanor Black |title=Women on the verge |page=32 |work=Next |date=September 2010 }} {{As of|2025}}, Pearson is a columnist and chief interviewer of The Daily Telegraph.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/allison-pearson/ |title=Allison Pearson |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=22 January 2016}} Pearson has presented Channel 4's {{lang|fr|J'Accuse|italic=yes}} and BBC Radio 4's The Copysnatchers. She participated as a panellist on Late Review, the predecessor of Newsnight Review.

Pearson is on the Media/PR Advisory Council of Toby Young's Free Speech Union.{{Cite web|date=7 August 2020|title=Who We Are – The Free Speech Union|url=https://freespeechunion.org/about/who-we-are/|access-date=4 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807132243/https://freespeechunion.org/about/who-we-are/|archive-date=7 August 2020}}

=="Jew haters" tweet==

In November 2024, Pearson was visited at home by Essex Police asking her to undergo a voluntary interview after a complaint that she had incited racial hatred with a tweet posted in November 2023. During a period of scrutiny on British policing of pro-Palestinian protests during the Gaza war, Pearson had posted a photo of Greater Manchester Police officers standing besides supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party waving the party's flag. However, despite the flag including the word "Pakistan", she called the flagbearers "Jew haters" and misidentified the officers as Metropolitan Police officers, citing an incident where that service had not met with an Israeli-advocacy group. These errors were corrected by a Community Note and Pearson deleted the tweet.{{Cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Kathryn |date=15 November 2024 |title=Police defend investigation into journalist's social media post |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cev9nxnygzpo |access-date=16 November 2024 |work=BBC News}}{{Cite news |last=Dodd |first=Vikram |date=15 November 2024 |title=Allison Pearson’s ‘racist’ tweet is at centre of Telegraph’s row with police |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/15/allison-pearson-jew-haters-tweet-is-at-centre-of-telegraphs-row-with-police |access-date=15 November 2024 |work=The Guardian}}

After the visit, Pearson wrote a Telegraph column criticising the incident and saying that the police had said it was a non-crime hate incident. Essex Police reported The Daily Telegraph to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, saying that it had body camera footage proving that they had never said it was a non-crime hate incident.

Mark Hobrough of the National Police Chiefs' Council conducted a review of the action of Essex police at their request, and concluded that it was correct for the police to investigate the matter. The report said of one of the officers who visited Pearson: "Our view was that the officer's behaviour during this interaction was exemplary."{{cite web |last1=Dodd |first1=Vikram |title=Police correctly investigated Allison Pearson’s alleged racism, review finds|date=6 March 2025 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/06/police-correctly-investigated-allison-pearson-alleged-racism-review-finds |website=theguardian.com |publisher=Guardian |access-date=9 March 2025}}

=Books=

Pearson's first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), was 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:{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/industry-lawsuit-book-pearson-dc-idUSN1137860320080811 |title=Miramax says British columnist failed to deliver book |date=11 August 2008 |work=Reuters }} it was published in 2010.{{cite news |author=Chloe Rhodes |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7835849/I-Think-I-Love-You-by-Allison-Pearson-review.html |title=I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson: review |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=21 June 2010 }} The novel was about a teenager's passion for David Cassidy in the 1970s and the man writing the so-called replies from David Cassidy to the teenage fans, who meet up 20 years later after marriage, divorce, and children. The Daily Telegraph praised the novel for its warmth and sincerity; however, The Guardian described it as an "unrealistic and sappy romance".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/20/i-think-i-love-you-allison-pearson |title=I Think I Love You, Book review |author=Carole Cadwalladr |author-link=Carole Cadwalladr |work=The Guardian |date=21 March 2018 }}

A sequel to I Don't Know How She Does It was published in September 2017. The novel, How Hard Can It Be, continues the story of the protagonist Kate Reddy, now approaching 50 and struggling with bias against older women in the workplace. The book attracted considerable publicity, but was not a bestseller.

Views

= Islamic terrorism =

Shortly after the first of the 22 March 2016 Belgian bombings, Pearson suggested that the attacks were a justification for the Brexit cause in the then-upcoming referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, writing on Twitter that "Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we're safer in the EU!" Her tweet was criticised by Kay Burley and The Guardian columnist Owen Jones.{{cite news|first=Heather|last=Saul|date=22 March 2016|title=Telegraph columnist accused of 'shamelessly' using Brussels attacks to make Brexit argument|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/brussels-explosions-allison-pearson-accused-of-shamelessly-exploiting-devastating-attack-to-make-a6945616.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322110047/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/brussels-explosions-allison-pearson-accused-of-shamelessly-exploiting-devastating-attack-to-make-a6945616.html |archive-date=2016-03-22 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|access-date=21 July 2017}}{{cite news|last=Pearson|first=Allison|date=12 January 2016|title=Why the Brexit referendum will be swung by the horrific events in Cologne|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12095265/Why-the-Brexit-referendum-will-be-swung-by-the-horrific-events-in-Cologne.html|access-date=21 July 2017}}{{cite news|last=Pearson|first=Allison|date=1 March 2016|title=Our schools and hospitals simply cannot cope with the influx of migrants – that's why we must leave the EU|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/12179753/Our-schools-and-hospitals-simply-cannot-cope-with-the-influx-of-migrants-thats-why-we-must-leave-the-EU.html|access-date=21 July 2017}}

= Transgender issues =

Pearson views transgender identity as "an evil trans ideology"{{Cite news |last=Pearson |first=Allison |date=2024-03-15 |title=The evil trans ideology is in retreat, at last |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/the-evil-trans-ideology-is-in-retreat-at-last/ |access-date=2024-04-13 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} and that "Organisations that should know better have allowed themselves to be infiltrated by a warped ideology that dares to call the fundamental truths of biological science lies".{{Cite news|last=Pearson|first=Allison|date=17 October 2017|title=Will our spineless politicians' love affair with LGBT ever end?|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/will-spineless-politicians-love-affair-lgbt-ever-end/|access-date=4 January 2021|issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web|date=20 October 2017|title=Telegraph columnist lashes out at "spineless" pro-LGBT politicians|url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/10/20/telegraph-columnist-lashes-out-at-spineless-pro-lgbt-politicians/|access-date=4 January 2021|website=PinkNews|language=en-GB}}

Writing for the Telegraph about the NHS's decision to log their patient's sexual orientation on every visit; she claimed that politicians were capitulating to the will of LGBT lobby groups. She questioned the allocation of public funds to the advocacy group LGBT Foundation:

"It's clear that spineless politicians, pathetically eager to be on-trend, are being manipulated by lobby groups such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Foundation, a “charity” reportedly behind the new NHS policy".

= COVID-19 pandemic =

Pearson said during the COVID-19 pandemic that she would not wear a protective face mask because she considered it demeaning.{{Cite news|last=Bland|first=Archie|date=25 January 2021|title=The information warriors fighting 'robot zombie army' of coronavirus sceptics|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/the-information-warriors-fighting-robot-zombie-army-of-coronavirus-sceptics|access-date=25 January 2021|issn=0261-3077}} In September 2020, Pearson suggested purposely infecting young people with COVID-19 to create herd immunity within the population.{{Cite news|last=Pearson|first=Allison|date=22 September 2020|title=Ridiculous Covid rules are hurting the young – nobody wants them to be punished in our name|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/ridiculous-covid-rules-hurting-young-nobody-wants-punished/|access-date=4 January 2021|issn=0307-1235}} In January 2021, Pearson drew censure from Twitter users after outing a critic's employer on Twitter, following her claim that National Health Service (NHS) bed occupancy during the pandemic was lower than suggested.{{Cite news|last=Kemp|first=Oliver|date=4 January 2021|title='You're finished' – Telegraph columnist threatens to sue Kent-based scientist|url=https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/youre-finished-telegraph-columnist-threatens-to-sue-kent-based-scientist-240167/|access-date=4 January 2021|website=Kent Online|language=en}}

According to The Guardian, Pearson has made misleading claims about COVID-19. In December 2020, she wrote in her Telegraph column that "Last week, Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Chris Whitty presented another of their Graphs of Doom; this one cherry-picked several hospitals on course to run out of beds." However, this was false, and no such data was presented in the period stated.{{Cite web|url=https://fullfact.org/health/pearson-telegraph-whitty-vallance/|title=Telegraph wrong on Whitty and Vallance statements|date=3 December 2020|access-date=23 December 2021|website=Full Fact}} In July 2021, she misleadingly tweeted that hospitalisations were 0.5% of COVID-19 cases; Full Fact found that the calculation was incorrect, but also did not make sense due to the lag between testing positive and hospitalisation.{{Cite web|url=https://fullfact.org/online/Allison-Pearson-Covid-stats-hospital/|title=Allison Pearson tweets misleading stats about Covid hospital patients|date=16 July 2021|access-date=23 December 2021|website=Full Fact}}

Personal life

Pearson was married to fellow journalist Simon Pearson, in May 1988 in Lincoln. She subsequently lived with Anthony Lane,{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3608486/A-writers-life-Anthony-Lane.html |title=A writer's life: Anthony Lane |author=Will Cohu |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=14 December 2003 |access-date=3 July 2007 }} a film critic for The New Yorker.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/01/25/adopt-pet-cat-turkey-rescue-kitten-animals-abroad-allison/|title=My Turkish cat arrives this week – after huge amounts of money and soppy sentimentality|first=Allison|last=Pearson|date=25 January 2024|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}

Allison Pearson was declared bankrupt 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.{{cite news |author=Andy McSmith |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andy-mcsmiths-diary-the-ideal-figure-to-bring-discipline-to-unruly-blairites-a6768691.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128071949/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andy-mcsmiths-diary-the-ideal-figure-to-bring-discipline-to-unruly-blairites-a6768691.html |archive-date=2016-01-28 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |title=Diary: The ideal figure to bring discipline to unruly Blairites |work=The Independent |date=10 January 2016 |access-date=22 January 2016}}{{cite news |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2436738 |title=Bankruptcy Orders – Pearson, Allison |newspaper=The London Gazette |issue=61417 |page=23080 |date=23 November 2015 |access-date=22 January 2016}}

Awards and honours

= Literary awards =

class="wikitable sortable" ! Year !! Work !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Ref
rowspan="3" \| 2003 \| rowspan="3" \| I Don't Know How She Does It \|\| Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize\|\| — \|\| {{sho}} \|\| {{cite news \|last=Pauli \|first=Michelle \|date=2003-05-27 \|title=Black comedy debut takes Wodehouse \|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/27/news.awardsandprizes \|url-status=live \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911020330/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/27/news.awardsandprizes \|archive-date=2014-09-11 \|accessdate=20 September 2011 \|newspaper=The Guardian}}
Virgin Books Newcomer of the Year Award	—	{{won}}
Waverton Good Read Award	—	{{nom\|Longlisted}}

class="wikitable sortable"

! Year !! Work !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Ref

rowspan="3" | 2003

| rowspan="3" | I Don't Know How She Does It || Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize|| — || {{sho}} || {{cite news |last=Pauli |first=Michelle |date=2003-05-27 |title=Black comedy debut takes Wodehouse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/27/news.awardsandprizes |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911020330/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/27/news.awardsandprizes |archive-date=2014-09-11 |accessdate=20 September 2011 |newspaper=The Guardian}}

Virgin Books Newcomer of the Year Award

—

Waverton Good Read Award

—

Bibliography

{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Allison |title=I Don't Know How She Does It |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2002 |isbn=9780701173029 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=London |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Allison |title=I Think I Love You |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2010 |isbn=9780701176976 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=London |author-mask=2}}
{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Allison |title=How Hard Can It Be? |publisher=The Borough Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780008150525 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=London |author-mask=2}}