Lesley-Ann Jones
{{Short description|English writer}}
{{distinguish|Leslie Ann Jones}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{BLP sources|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Lesley-Ann Jones
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| image = Lesley-Ann Jones signing.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| alt = Lesley-Ann Jones
| caption = Jones signing books
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| occupation = Author
| language = English
| nationality = British
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| children = Three
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| website = {{URL|http://www.lesleyannjones.com/}}
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Lesley-Ann Jones is a British author,{{cite web|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley Ann|title=Lesley-Ann Jones|url=https://www.hodder.co.uk/Authors/Lesley-Ann+Jones.page|website=Hodder & Stoughton}} journalist and broadcaster who spent more than 20 years as a national newspaper journalist on Fleet Street. Of Welsh descent, she was born in Kent, England. She read French and Spanish at the University of Westminster, and worked in the music industry.{{Citation needed|date= March 2024}} She later followed her father, sportswriter Ken Jones, to Fleet Street.
Biography
In the 1980s, she worked for Chrysalis Records, London, the label of some major acts at the time (Spandau Ballet, Jethro Tull (band), Special AKA, Midge Ure & Ultravox, Blondie), where she wrote sleeve notes, prepared press releases and organised interviews for the national press. She moved into television at the inception of Channel 4. The prime-time Saturday-night pop-music magazine series ‘Ear Say’, which she co-presented with Capital Radio DJs Nicky Horne and Gary Crowley, led to guest appearances on a variety of TV and radio shows, including Capital's You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet, a weekly music quiz produced by pop guru Phil Swern, and Radio Clyde’s Bill Padley Show, with Padley and singer/songwriter Jim Diamond. She also wrote a weekly column for The Sun. She spent six years as a showbusiness feature-writer for the Daily Mail, Mail On Sunday and You magazine, touring with Paul McCartney, David Bowie,{{Cite web|date=2016-10-18|title=The Culture Interview: Lesley-Ann Jones|url=https://advantagesofage.com/exclusives/culture-interview-lesley-ann-jones/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-12-11|website=The Advantages of Age|language=en-US}} the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Queen{{Cite magazine|title=Freddie Mercury Biographer Lesley-Ann Jones on the 'Incredibly Shy Man' She Knew|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8485991/freddie-mercury-biographer-bohemian-rhapsody|access-date=2020-12-17|magazine=Billboard|language=en}}{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/mercury-an-intimate-biography-of-freddie-mercury-by-lesley-ann-jones-and-40-years-of-queen-by-harry-doherty/2012/07/11/gJQAaOEshW_story.html |title='Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury,' by Lesley-Ann Jones and '40 Years of Queen,' by Harry Doherty |date=2012-07-13 |author1=David Kirby |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}} and other star acts of the day.
As a freelance feature writer, her contributions to publications in the UK, US, Australia and Europe included interviews with Tony Blair, Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Mel Gibson, Charlton Heston, Paul McCartney, Brigitte Bardot and Princess Margaret. She appeared weekly for several years on BFBS Forces Radio with the late Tommy Vance, and worked on documentaries on Stevie Nicks, Ken Russell and Jermaine Jackson. She also appeared on TV shows Fax!, Music Box and Livewire in the UK, and E! Entertainment and Hard Copy in the US. The Pampers diaper commercial she filmed with her baby daughter for Saatchi & Saatchi was aired across Europe for 18 months, one of the campaign’s most successful ads.
Following three years writing columns and features for the Sunday Express and the Mail on Sunday, she revised and updated her 1997 definitive biography of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Republication by Hodder & Stoughton in October 2011 (paperback 2012) was due to coincide with the release of a Mercury biopic to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the singer's death. However, production of the film was delayed, and it was not released until 2018.{{cite news |title=Bohemian Rhapsody: Queen biopic surpasses $900m at box office |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47939549 |accessdate=15 April 2019 |agency=BBC}}
In 2010, she was appointed Showbusiness Editor{{cite web|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=ME & MRS JONES – Transparent TV|url=http://transparent.tv/programme/me-mrs-jones/|website=transparent.tv}} for SKY/Freesat's music channel Vintage TV. She wrote and presented their celebrity interview series 'Me & Mrs Jones' (produced by Transparent Television and featuring heritage rock and pop artists Rick Wakeman, Frank Allen of The Searchers, Leee John of Imagination, Kim Wilde, Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel, Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet and Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo.)
In December 2015, she wrote and co-produced The Last Lennon Interview for ShowBiz TV.{{cite web|last1=Peebles|first1=Andy|last2=Jones|first2=Lesley Ann|title=JOHN LENNON|url=http://www.show-biz.tv/2015/12/08/john-lennon/|website=Showbiz TV|date=8 December 2015}} It was internationally acclaimed, and was first aired on the 35th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. It was the first time former BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles had publicly talked about his interview with John and Yoko Ono in New York only a couple of days before Lennon was murdered.
Personal life
The mother of a son and two daughters, she lives in London and Kent, England.
Her father was sports reporter Ken Jones,{{cite web|url=https://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/obits/ken-jones-rip-from-red-hot-football-reporter-to-authoritative-and-balanced-all-round-sports-columnist/|title=Ken Jones RIP: From red-hot football reporter to authoritative and balanced all-round sports columnist|website=Sportsjournalists.co.uk|access-date=16 April 2024}} and her uncle is ex-footballer Cliff Jones.
Published works
- Fly Away Paul: How Paul McCartney survived the Beatles and found his Wings (biography, Coronet, 2024)
- The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones (biography, John Blake/Bonnier Books, 2022)
- Love of My Life: The Life and Loves of Freddie Mercury (biography, Coronet, 2021)
- Who Killed John Lennon?: The Life, Loves And Deaths of The Greatest Rock Star (biography, John Blake, 2020)
- Tumbling Dice (memoir, Independently Published, 2019){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Tumbling Dice|date=2019|publisher=Independently Published|isbn=9781091752047}}
- Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury (biography, Hodder & Stoughton, 2018){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury|date=2018|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|isbn=9781444733693}}
- Hero: David Bowie (biography, Hodder & Stoughton, 2016){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Hero: David Bowie|date=2016|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|isbn=9781444758818}}
- Imagine (fiction, Mulcahy Books, 2015){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Imagine|publisher=Mulcahy Books|date=2015|isbn=978-1519274649}}
- Ride A White Swan: The Lives And Death Of Marc Bolan (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Ride a white swan : The Lives And Death of Marc Bolan|date=2013|isbn=978-1444758795|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ridewhiteswanliv0000jone}}
- ''Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography (rewrite, biography, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Freddie Mercury : The Definitive Biography|date=2011|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|location=London|isbn=9781444733679|edition=[New edition]}}
- Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography (biography, Hodder and Stoughton, 1997){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Freddie Mercury The Definitive Biography|date=1997|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|location=London|isbn=0340672080}}
- Excuses, Excuses with Gray Jolliffe (humour, Kyle Cathie, 1996){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann & Gray Jolliffe|title=Excuses, Excuses.|date=1996|publisher=K. Cathie Ltd.|location=London|isbn=9781856261821}}
- Wow! with Caris Davis (fiction, Mainstream under the pseudonym Amy Auden, 1994 )
- Naomi: The Rise and Rise of the Girl from Nowhere (biography, Vermilion, 1993){{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Lesley-Ann|title=Naomi : the rise and rise of the girl from nowhere|date=1993|publisher=Vermilion|location=London|isbn=9780091782825}}
- Kylie Minogue: The Superstar Next Door (biography, Omnibus Press/Media Business International, 1990)
- The Sony Tape Rock Review (review, Rambletree, compiled and edited by Robin Eggar, Phil Swern & Lesley-Ann Jones){{cite book|last1=Eggar|first1=Robin|last2=Swern|first2=Phil|last3=Jones|first3=Lesley-Ann|title=The Sony Tape Rock Review.|date=1984|publisher=Rambletree|isbn=9780947894009}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.lesleyannjones.com/ Official website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Lesley-Ann}}
Category:Alumni of the University of Westminster
Category:English people of Welsh descent
Category:English women journalists
Category:English women biographers
Category:English women non-fiction writers