Janie Hampton

Janie Hampton (born as Anderson, 14 March 1952) is a British author, best known for her biography of Joyce Grenfell and social history books The Austerity Olympics and How the Girl Guides Won the War.

Biography

Janie Hampton is the penultimate daughter of the author Verily Anderson and the playwright Donald Clive Anderson. Her siblings include the author Rachel Anderson and the television producer Eddie Anderson. She has been married since 1971 and has four children.^[1]

While living on a small-holding in Shropshire in the 1970s^[2] Hampton designed and made clothes that she sold in London, Los Angeles and Rome. Her customers included musician Robert Plant and author Louisa Young.^[3]

In 1980 the Hamptons moved to Zimbabwe,^[4] where she studied for a BA in Human Sciences,^[5] wrote books and articles on health issues,^[6][7] and was the Women's Editor of the Manica Post.^[8] After her return to Britain in 1985, she produced The Medical Programme and Focus on Africa for the BBC World Service. In 1988 she gained an MSc in International Health from the Institute of Child Health, London. Her thesis was on the health and development of pre-school children, researched while living in the remote Honde Valley, Zimbabwe^[9]

In 1991, the British Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International Development) commissioned Hampton to help develop its policy on international women's health. She then planned health projects in Africa, South America and Asia.^[10]

In 1992 Hampton was elected onto the founding committee of Writers in Oxford and became its chair in 2003.^[11][12] As part of the 2001 Year of the Artist she was the first Arts Council-sponsored writer-in-residence in a pub.^[13][14] She is an Associate Member of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.^[15]

In 2009, Hampton, Jane Moore and Belinda Coote founded the Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust, which aimed to restore the ship MV Chauncy Maples into a mobile clinic for Lake Malawi.^[16] Hampton resigned from the trust in 2013 after £2 million had been raised for the for the renovation of the ship.^[17] In 2014, she became patron of the Malawi Association UK Achievers Award.

Journalism, broadcasting and public speaking

Hampton has written articles for various newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian,^[18][19] Daily Telegraph,^[20] The Times,^[21] Independent,^[22][23] Spare Rib,^[24] Total Politics,^[25] New Statesman,^[26] Sunday Telegraph,^[27] and The Author.^[28][29] In 2011, she was appointed Olympics Correspondent of The Oldie magazine.^[30] Hampton has been a journalist in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda^[31] and was interviewed about the history of the Olympic Games in London on various radio stations and television channels, including BBC Breakfast^[32] and Newsnight.^[33]

Hampton has spoken at Cliveden House,^[34] The Oldie literary luncheons^[35] and many literary festivals.^[36]

Books

A Family Outing in Africa described the Hampton's journey from Zimbabwe to the UK via Zaire (on public transport with her three children) and was published by Macmillan in 1988.^[37] She continued to write about health issues throughout the 1990s and was also increasingly successful as an author of social history. In 2002, her biography of writer and actor Joyce Grenfell was published to critical acclaim.^{[38][39][40][41]}

The Austerity Olympics, a social history of the London Olympics of 1948, was introduced by Sebastian Coe and quoted by many Olympic observers,^[42] including Mayor of London Boris Johnson^[43] and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.^[44] The book was filmed by BBC TV as Bert and Dickie, starring Matt Smith and Geoffrey Palmer.^[45][46]

How the Girl Guides Won the War chronicled the role of Guides and Brownies in 20th-century feminist history.^[47][48] Hampton's latest two books are about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (Rationing and Revelry) and state visits by members of the British Royal Family (The Royal Tours).

Non-fiction

• A Family Outing in Africa (1988)
• Joyce Grenfell, The First Biography (2002)
• The Austerity Olympics: When the Games Came to London in 1948 (2008)
• How the Girl Guides Won the War (2010)
• London Olympics: 1908 and 1948 (2011)
• The Royal Tours (2013)
• Rationing and Revelry: The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953 (2013)

Books edited by Janie Hampton

• Joyce and Ginnie – The Letters of Joyce Grenfell & Virginia Graham (1997)
• Internally Displaced People – A Global Survey (1998)
• Hats off! The poetry of Joyce Grenfell (2002)
• My Kind of Magic – Articles by Joyce Grenfell (2003)
• Letters from Aldeburgh by Joyce Grenfell (2006)

Books contributed to by Janie Hampton

• "Joyce Grenfell", in British Comedy Greats (2003)
• "Felicia Skene", in Oxford – One City, Many Voices (2004)
• "Things I Wish I'd Known When I Was Younger", in Does Cockshutt Beat Sandy Balls? (2007)

Books on health

• Happy Healthy Children – child care in Africa (1985)
• Healthy Living, Healthy Loving – sex education for Africa (1987)
• World Health (1987)
• Meeting AIDS with Compassion in Ghana (1990)
• Positive Living with Aids in Uganda (1990)
• Healthy Mothers, Happy Babies in Africa (1990)
• Aches and Pains – Living with Arthritis and Rheumatism ( 1992)
• Up and About with Arthritis (1997)

Children's fiction

• What Made Joseph Ill? (1988)
• "The Red Sock", in Stories for Four Year Olds (1989)
• "The Baobab and the Banyan Tree", in Stories Around the World (1992)
• Come Home Soon, Baba (1994)

References

External links

• Official website