Decca Aitkenhead

Aitkenhead's family lived in Wiltshire when she was born; she has three older brothers. Her father was a teacher in Bristol before becoming a builder after the family moved to the country.{{cite web|first=Decca|last=Aitkenhead|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/oct/29/weekend7.weekend5|title=The things left unsaid|work=The Guardian|year=2005}} Her mother was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and died when Aitkenhead was nine. Many years later, Aitkenhead discovered that her mother had killed herself.

Aitkenhead studied Politics and Modern History at the University of Manchester, where she worked for the Manchester Evening News as a columnist and feature writer.[https://www.theguardian.com/student-media-awards-2012/decca-aitkenhead "Decca Aitkenhead, the Monday interviewer for G2, the Guardian"], Student media awards, 2012, The Guardian. After moving to London, she completed a Diploma in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London in 1995[http://www.city.ac.uk/arts-social-sciences/journalism/graduate-prospects/leading-city-journalism-alumni/leading-journalism-alumni-newspapers "Leading alumni... in newspapers"], City University website before beginning her career in the national press.

Aitkenhead wrote for The Independent from 1995 before joining The Guardian in 1997, but left the paper in 1999 to write her first book. During this period she lived in Jamaica for a year with her then husband.Decca Aitkenhead, [https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,404724,00.html "Pleasure island"], The Guardian, 30 November 2000.

Her book The Promised Land: Travels in search of the perfect E, was published in 2002. While the drug ecstasy was promoted as a way to make oneself happy in her travelogue, the book was described by Dave Haslam in a London Review of Books article as, "In many ways" not "a great advertisement for drug-taking" as her experiences are largely "joyless" and not transformative.Dave Haslam, "Strangeways Here We Come", London Review of Books, 25:2, 23 January 2003, pp. 29–30. Ian Penman in his Guardian reviewIan Penman, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/19/travel.travelbooks "Just say no"], The Guardian, 19 January 2002. thought the work "tentative" while Geraldine Bedell in The Observer described it as an "intelligent and absorbing book".Geraldine Bedell, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/13/travel.features "Take the high road"], The Observer, 13 January 2002 During a period as a freelance, she wrote for the Mail on Sunday, London Evening Standard, and The Sunday Telegraph, before rejoining The Guardian in 2004. She was subsequently appointed Chief Interviewer at The Sunday Times.

Aitkenhead contributed interviews for the newspaper's G2 section. In 2009 she won the Interviewer of the Year at the British Press Awards. She had "particularly impressed the judges with her remarkable encounter in August with Chancellor Alistair Darling".[http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/43456 "British Press Awards 2009: The full list of winners"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919163420/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/43456 |date=19 September 2012 }}, Press Gazette, 31 March 2009.Decca Aitkenhead, [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/aug/30/alistairdarling.economy "Storm warning"], The Guardian, 29 August 2008. She is also a contributor to radio and television programmes.{{Vague|date=February 2021}}

In May 2014, Aitkenhead's partner, Kids Company charity worker Tony Wilkinson, drowned in Jamaica while attempting to rescue one of the couple's two sons, who survived.[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/17/charity-worker-drowns-rescuing-son "Charity worker drowns on holiday in Jamaica while rescuing son"], The Guardian, 17 May 2014. The couple had been together for a decade. Aitkenhead has written about their relationship, and the process of mourning in her memoir All at Sea.{{cite news|last=Aitkenhead|first=Decca|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/26/disaster-movie-day-partner-drowned-decca-aitkenhead-breast-cancer|title='The scene belonged to a disaster movie, not a family holiday': the day my partner drowned|work=The Guardian|date=26 March 2016|accessdate=26 March 2016}} Just over a year after Wilkinson died, Aitkenhead discovered she was suffering from an aggressive form of breast cancer with a genetic link. After medical treatment, including chemotherapy, her cancer is in remission.{{cite news|last=Felsenthal|first=Julia|url=http://www.vogue.com/article/decca-aitkenhead-all-at-sea-interview|title=Decca Aitkenhead on All at Sea, Her Memoir of Learning to Grieve|work=Vogue|date=16 August 2016|accessdate=15 April 2017}}{{cite news|last=Aitkenhead|first=Decca|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/03/how-to-get-through-chemotherapy-decca-aitkenhead-cancer-treatment|title=How to get through chemotherapy|work=The Guardian|date=3 June 2016|accessdate=15 April 2017}}

Aitkenhead was the winner of the BBC's 2020 Russell Prize for best writing for her article How a Jamaican Psychedelic Mushroom Retreat Helped Me Process My Grief, published in The Times.{{cite web| last= Rajan| first= Amol| authorlink= Amol Rajan| title= The winners: The 2020 Russell Prize for best writing| url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55350905 | date= 21 December 2020| website= BBC News Online| accessdate= 23 December 2020 }}

• The Promised Land: Travels in search of the perfect E (2002)Decca Aitkenhead, The Promised Land: Travels in search of the perfect E, London: Fourth Estate, 2002, {{ISBN|978-1841153377}}
• All at Sea (2016){{cite book|first=Decca|last= Aitkenhead|title=All at Sea|location=London|publisher=Fourth Estate|year= 2016|isbn=978-0008142148}}{{cite news |last1=Kellaway |first1=Kate |title=All at Sea by Decca Aitkenhead review – the power of grief |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/10/all-at-sea-review-decca-aitkenhead |work=The Guardian |date=10 April 2016}}

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Category:1971 births

Category:21st-century English memoirists

Category:21st-century English women writers

Category:Alumni of City, University of London

Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester

Category:English journalists

Category:Living people

Category:The Guardian journalists

Category:The Independent people

Category:Writers from Wiltshire

Category:English women memoirists