Jill Tweedie
{{Short description|British journalist (1936–1993)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jill Tweedie
| image = Jill Sheila Tweedie.jpg
| image_size =
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| caption = Tweedie in 1972
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Jill Sheila Tweedie
| birth_date = 22 May 1936
| birth_place = Cairo, Egypt
| death_date = {{death date and age|1993|11|12|1936|5|22|df=yes}}
| death_place = London, England
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| occupation = Writer, journalist, broadcaster
| language = English
| nationality = British
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| spouse = Bela Cziraky (m. 1954)
Robert d'Ancona (m. 1963)
Alan Brien (m. 1973)
| partner =
| children = 3
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Jill Sheila Tweedie (22 May 1936 – 12 November 1993) was a British feminist, writer and broadcaster.
Biography
She was educated at the independent Croydon High School in Croydon, South London. She wrote a column in The Guardian on feminist issues (1969–1988),{{cite news|title=10 November 1975: Guardian columnist Jill Tweedie says sex is boring|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/jun/02/guardian190-jill-tweedie-1975|accessdate=28 September 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|first=Research|last=Department|date=2 June 2011}} "Letters from a faint-hearted feminist", and an autobiography entitled Eating Children (1993). She succeeded Mary Stott as a principal columnist on The Guardian's women's page.
Her light style and left-leaning politics captured the spirit of British feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. In November 2005 she was one of only five women included in the Press Gazette's 40-strong gallery of most influential British journalists.
She was married three times, to the Hungarian Count Bela Cziraky, to Bob d'Ancona, and lastly, to journalist Alan Brien, her partner until her death from motor neurone disease in 1993.{{cite news|last=Belfrage|first=Sally|title=Obituary: Jill Tweedie|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jill-tweedie-1503933.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jill-tweedie-1503933.html |archive-date=8 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|newspaper=The Independent|date=13 November 1993|location=London}}
She is commemorated in a group portrait at the National Portrait Gallery with fellow Guardian Women's Page contributors Mary Stott, Polly Toynbee, Posy Simmonds and Liz Forgan.{{cite news|last=Forgan|first=Liz|title=For the love of a faint hearted feminist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/apr/18/gender.uk|newspaper=The Guardian|date=17 April 2000|location=London}}
In October 2024, Polly Toynbee claimed in an op-ed for The Guardian in support of assisted suicide that Tweedie had taken her own life, rather than having died from motor neurone disease, as previously thought.{{cite web |last1=Toynbee |first1=Polly |title=Two deaths shaped my belief in the right to die. This bill could change everything |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/09/assisted-dying-bill-kim-leadbeater-right-to-die |website=The Guardian |date=9 October 2024}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20041226061220/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/t/tweedie_jill.shtml Jill Tweedie: The Fainthearted Feminist], BBC
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Category:British feminist writers
Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in England
Category:The Guardian journalists
Category:People educated at Croydon High School