Joan Bakewell has had a fifty year career in broadcasting and is still at it. Born in Stockport, graduated in Cambridge, she has published an autobiography, The Centre of the Bed, and two novels: All the Nice Girls and She's Leaving Home. She has two children, six grandchildren, and sits in the House of Lords as a Labour Peer. She lives in North London.
[Joan Bakewell's] new book is a joy Psychologies A wry analysis of the world she will leave -- Rachel Cooke Observer Heartfelt and fiendishly smart Sunday Telegraph Companionable and insightful ... by turns entertaining, frank and - when dealing with death and loss - unflinching. It is, then, true to the spirit of a most accomplished woman, who has always had the knack of making whatever she does look easy. When it comes to facing down old age with such style and honesty, that is perhaps the most impressive achievement of all Herald She writes as sensitively as George Orwell ... Bakewell is an advertisement for active survival -- John Sutherland New Statesman