Julia Hobsbawm

Born in 1964 in London, England,{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/0dbd14de-a7c0-11e2-9fbe-00144feabdc0|title=Remembering Dad|first=Julia|last=Hobsbawm|newspaper=Financial Times|date=19 April 2013}} Julia Hobsbawm is the daughter of historian Eric Hobsbawm and music teacher Marlene Schwarz, both European emigres.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/21/julia-hobsbawm|title=My family values|interviewer=Sabine Durrant|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Julia|last=Hobsbawm|date=22 February 2009}} She grew up in Hampstead,{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6xs0#:~:text=Julia%20was%20born%20in%201964,as%20Hitler%20came%20to%20power.|title=The House I Grew Up In {{!}} Julia Hobsbawm|website=BBC Radio 4|publisher=BBC|date=2 August 2010|access-date=16 July 2024}} attending Camden School for Girls.{{cite web|title=Interview: Julia Hobsbawm|url=https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/interview-julia-hobsbawm-na2ms4ui|website=The Jewish Chronicle|first=Lynne|last=Franks| date=24 November 2016}}

In the early 1980s, she studied French and Italian at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster), leaving without qualifications after failing to transfer to Media Studies. She worked in publishing, and then as a researcher in television, including on Wogan,{{cite web|title=My Life in Media: Julia Hobsbawm|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/my-life-in-media-julia-hobsbawm-530996.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=3 April 2005 }}{{cite web|title=Julia Hobsbawm: ‘I’m interested in social mobility, and I think there is a stuckness going on’|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/10/julia-hobsbawm-queen-of-networking|website=The Guardian|first=Zoe|last=Williams| date=10 October 2014}} before moving to political fundraising for the Labour Party before the 1992 General Election.

In 1993, Hobsbawm founded the public relations firm Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications with her friend Sarah Brown.{{cite web |last1=Boggan |first1=Steve |title=Face that fits for the man with a head for figures |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/face-that-fits-for-the-man-with-a-head-for-figures-1258810.html |website=The Independent |access-date=15 November 2023 |language=en |date=29 June 1997}}{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/londons-networking-queen-julia-hobsbawm-7305836.html|title=London's networking queen: Julia Hobsbawm|newspaper=The Standard|date=10 April 2012}}

She has held Honorary Visiting Professorships at the University of the Arts, London, and more recently at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School), including a roles as Honorary Visiting Professor of Networking in 2012{{cite web |last1=Guttenplan |first1=D. D. |title=Networking in the Groves of Academe |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/world/europe/02iht-educside02.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=15 November 2023 |date=1 July 2012}} and Honorary Visiting Professor in Workplace Social Health until 2020.{{cite web|url=https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2018/march/julia-hobsbawm-honorary-visiting-professor-workplace-social-health|title=Cass appoints Julia Hobsbawm as its first Honorary Visiting Professor of Workplace Social Health|publisher=Bayes Business School|date=19 March 2018|access-date=31 December 2022}} Since September 2022 she writes the "Working Assumptions" column for Bloomberg News' section on work, Work Shift, having formerly been an editor-at-large for wellbeing portal Thrive, and a columnist for Strategy+Business magazine.{{reference needed|date=December 2022}}

She began hosting The Nowhere Office podcast with Stefan Stern in March 2021.{{cite web |title=The Nowhere Office on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nowhere-office/id1559059883 |website=Apple Podcasts|date=16 January 2024 }}

Hobsbawm was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2015 for services to business.{{cite web |title=Birthday Honours 2015: the Prime Minister's list: CSV - GOV.UK |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/434842/Birthday_Honours_2015_main_list.csv/preview |website=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |language=en}}

She is a patron of the Facial Surgery Research Foundation and the Zoe Sarojini Trust, a charity educating girls in South Africa, and was a founding trustee in the UK of OurBrainBank.{{reference needed|date=December 2022}}

In 2024, Hobsbawm was one of five women who accused Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse. Hobsbawm described an encounter in 1986 at her studio flat in London, where Gaiman made "an aggressive, unwanted pass," "jumped her," pushing her onto a sofa and forced his tongue into her mouth. Gaiman characterized the incident as "no more than a young man misreading a situation," according to the report.{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Rachel |date=2024-08-01|title=Exclusive: Two more women accuse Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse|url=https://www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/08/01/exclusive-two-more-women-accuse-neil-gaiman-of-sexual-assault-and-abuse/ |website=Tortoise Media |language=en}}{{Cite tweet |author=Julia Hobsbawm |author-link= |user=juliahobsbawm |number=1822920166209982586 |date=12 August 2024 |title= Of all the things written about Neil Gaiman since @tortoise series (in which I took part speaking to @RachelSJohnson and @pcaruanagalizia) this blog got to me. No I'm not adding to my interview or statement but I'm aware more scrutiny is happening. Good. |access-date=3 September 2024 |link=https://x.com/juliahobsbawm/status/1822920166209982586 }}

• Working Assumptions: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generational AI - and What We Know Now (White Fox Publishing with Fully Connected, 2024)
• The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future (Basic Books UK and Public Affairs, 2022)
• The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World (Kogan Page, 2020)
• Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload (Bloomsbury, 2017)
• The See-Saw: 100 Ideas for Work-Life Balance (Atlantic Books, 2009)
• Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in the Business of PR, Journalism and Communications (Atlantic Books, 2006)

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• {{official website|http://www.juliahobsbawm.com/}}
• {{cite web |first1= David |last1= Benjamin |first2= David |last2= Komlos |url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminkomlos/2022/07/25/julia-hobsbawm-on-the-nowhere-office-and-this-fascinating-moment-of-great-re-evaluation/ |title= Julia Hobsbawm On The Nowhere Office And This Fascinating Moment Of 'Great Re-Evaluation' |publisher= Forbes |date= 25 July 2022}}

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Category:1964 births

Category:21st-century English women writers

Category:Alumni of the Polytechnic of Central London

Category:English people of Polish-Jewish descent

Julia Hobsbawm

Category:Jewish English writers

Category:Living people

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People educated at Camden School for Girls

Category:People from Hampstead

Category:Writers from the London Borough of Camden