{{Short description|English writer, academic and broadcaster (born 1948)}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|8|25}} | birth_place = Hornsey, London, England | death_date = | death_place = | father = Michael Gilbert | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Writer, academic and broadcaster | alma_mater = Rose Bruford College | partner = | years_active = | known_for = Presenting BBC Radio arts and book programmes | notable_works = | website = }} '''Harriett Sarah Gilbert''' (born 25 August 1948) is an English writer, academic and broadcaster, particularly of the arts and book programmes on the BBC World Service. Besides ''World Book Club'' on the World Service, she also presents ''A Good Read'' on BBC Radio 4. Before the programme was cancelled, she also presented the BBC World Service programme ''The Strand''.
She is the daughter of the writer Michael Gilbert.
==Biography== Born in Hornsey, London, Gilbert studied at the French Lycée in London and at a succession of boarding schools. "Growing Pains" was her contribution to ''Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties'' (1985), a collection of autobiographical writing.<ref>Heron, Liz (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=FtdzQgAACAAJ ''Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties''], Virago, 1985.</ref> After graduating from drama school, she worked as an actor,<ref name="BBC_GR">{{cite web |title=Harriett Gilbert: A Good Read |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2TsMcmtw1qSbjVsymMfjl6X/harriett-gilbert |publisher=BBC |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref> as well as a nanny, a waitress, an artist's model and a clerk-typist. She began to write in her twenties.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/presenters/harriett_gilbert.shtml BBC World Service profile]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529074310/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/presenters/harriett_gilbert.shtml |date=29 May 2008 }}</ref>
She nominated ''A High Wind in Jamaica'' by Richard Hughes, first read to her by her father when she was eight years old, as a life-changing book.<ref>[http://www.jour.city.ac.uk/books/documents/reviews/ahighwindinjamaica.htm Life Changing Reviews] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405140537/http://www.jour.city.ac.uk/books/documents/reviews/ahighwindinjamaica.htm |date=5 April 2005 }}</ref> The one piece of advice her father, the writer Michael Gilbert, gave her about writing was: "For God's sake, don't use adverbs."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060712102645/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/10/db1002.xml ''Daily Telegraph'' obituary of Michael Gilbert], 10 February 2006.</ref>
==Career== From 1983 to 1988, she was the literary editor of the ''New Statesman'' and, before that, of ''City Limits'' (1981–83).<ref name="BBC_GR"/> She has also contributed to ''Time Out'', ''The Guardian'', and ''The Washington Post''.
From 1992, she lectured in the Department of Journalism at the City University, London, where until 2008 she was also the programme director of the MA Creative Writing (novels) course.<ref>[http://www.city.ac.uk/journalism/people/faculty/hsgilbert.html City university page]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818131832/http://www.city.ac.uk/journalism/people/faculty/hsgilbert.html |date=18 August 2007 }}</ref>
She wrote two short animated films, directed by Marjut Rimminen: ''The Stain'' (1992) and ''Many Happy Returns'' (1997).
Gilbert presents one programme on BBC World Service radio: ''World Book Club'', broadcast on the first Saturday in each month. About presenting for the World Service, Gilbert has said: "I think I'm doing the dream job, I just love it, and I can't think of anywhere else I'd like to be."<ref>[http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?/.pages.071101.meetthepresenter/bBBC001/xUJ4G51 "Meet the Presenter – Harriett Gilbert"], BBC World Service. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708102107/http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?%2F.pages.071101.meetthepresenter%2FbBBC001%2FxUJ4G51 |date=8 July 2011 }}</ref>
Gilbert has introduced the World Service arts documentary series ''Close Up''.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03js7yt | title = BBC World Service - Close Up, Songs of the Earth: USA | date = 2007-11-23 | website = BBC | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160719221342/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03js7yt | archive-date = 2016-07-19}}</ref> In 2008, she stood in as presenter of the arts programme ''The Ticket''.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/the_ticket.shtml ''The Ticket''], BBC Radio World Service, 25 October 2008.</ref> She previously presented the World Service's dedicated book programme ''The Word''.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2TsMcmtw1qSbjVsymMfjl6X/harriett-gilbert | title = BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read - Harriett Gilbert | website = BBC | access-date = 2020-03-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150305040404/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2TsMcmtw1qSbjVsymMfjl6X/harriett-gilbert | archive-date = 2015-03-05}}</ref> Besides this, she has also presented arts programmes for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four television.
In 2011, she replaced Sue MacGregor as presenter of the Radio 4 book programme ''A Good Read''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/radio/gilbert-to-front-r4s-good-read/5027702.article |title=Gilbert to front R4's Good Read|first=Ben|last=Dowell|website=Broadcast|date=17 May 2011}}</ref>
Writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen called her "one of the very best presenters of arts programmes on radio or TV".<ref>[http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/news_archive3.html Michael Rosen website]{{dead link|date=June 2017}}</ref> The ''Financial Times'' said of her, "the splendid Harriett Gilbert [...] painfully shows up certain would-be arty Radio 4 colleagues".<ref>Martin Hoyle, [https://www.ft.com/content/e35e5fac-a7b7-11dd-865e-000077b07658 "Radio choice"], ''Financial Times'', 1 November 2008.{{subscription required}}</ref>
She is the author of six novels, including ''Hotels With Empty Rooms'' and ''The Riding Mistress''. Her non-fiction books include ''A Women's History of Sex'' and ''The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola''. She scripted the short animated film ''The Stain'' (1991).<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385251/ IMDb ''The Stain'']</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/TheStainRimminenRoche Internet Archive]</ref>
As of 2009, although she has not published a novel since 1983, she hoped to return to writing.<ref>[https://xcity-magazine.com/?p=1428 "BBC’s Bush House beckons writing tutor"], 26 March 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201849/http://www.xcity-magazine.com/?p=1428 |date=3 March 2016 }}</ref>
She was a judge of the 2011 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/11/independent-foreign-fiction-prize-shortlist-pamuk |title=Orhan Pamuk leads shortlist for Independent foreign fiction prize|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Alison|last=Flood|date= 11 April 2011}}</ref>
== Personal life == She comes from a family of writers: her father Michael Gilbert wrote crime fiction; her paternal grandfather, Bernard Gilbert, was a poet, novelist and playwright; and her paternal grandmother, Berwyn Cuthbert, was a journalist.<ref name="A Good Red bio">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3dVT5S0RyY92yzvMW7pw5dD/harriett-gilbert|title=A Good Read|website=BBC Radio 4|access-date=19 October 2023}}</ref> Harriett Gilbert lives in London with her painter husband, Robin Hazlewood.<ref name="A Good Red bio" />
==Bibliography== *''I Know Where I've Been'' – Harper and Row (USA) (1972). {{ISBN|0-06-011522-X}} *''Hotels With Empty Rooms'' – Harpercollins (1973). {{ISBN|0-06-011519-X}} *''An Offence Against the Persons'' – Hodder & Stoughton (1974). {{ISBN|0-340-18520-1}} *''Given the Ammunition'' – Harper and Row (1976). {{ISBN|0-06-011514-9}} (published in the UK as ''Tide Race'' – Constable (1977). {{ISBN|0-09-461570-5}}) *''Running Away'' - Harper and Row (USA) (1979). {{ISBN|978-006021972-7}} – a novel for young adults *''The Riding Mistress'' – Constable (1983). {{ISBN|0-09-464990-1}} *"Growing Pains" in Liz Heron (ed.), ''Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing Up in the Fifties'' – Virago (1985). {{ISBN|0-86068-596-9}} – autobiographical essay *''A Women's History of Sex'' – Pandora (1987) (illustrated by Christine Roche). {{ISBN|0-86358-142-0}} *''The Sexual Imagination: From Acker to Zola – A Feminist Companion'' – Jonathan Cape (1993). {{ISBN|0-224-03535-5}} (published in the US as ''Fetishes, Florentine Girdles, and Other Explorations into the Sexual Imagination '' – Harpercollins (1994). {{ISBN|0-06-273313-3}}) *''Writing for Journalists'' – Routledge (1999) (with Wynford Hicks and Sally Adams). {{ISBN|0-415-18445-2}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== *Elizabeth Sleeman (2003), ''International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004'', Routledge, {{ISBN|1-85743-179-0}}
==External links== *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003jhsk World Book Club homepage] *{{IMDb name|1472915}} *[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006v8jn/profiles/harriet-gilbert Biography on the BBC website] *[http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?/.pages.071101.meetthepresenter/bBBC001/xUJ4G51 BBC World Service – Meet the Presenter – Video profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708102107/http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?%2F.pages.071101.meetthepresenter%2FbBBC001%2FxUJ4G51 |date=8 July 2011 }} *[http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/archive/030427/books6.htm Interview from 2003]{{dead link|date=April 2026|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
{{BBC World Service}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Harriett}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Academics of City, University of London Category:Alumni of Rose Bruford College Category:BBC people Category:BBC World Service presenters Category:English women journalists Category:English women non-fiction writers Category:English women novelists Category:People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle Category:People from Hornsey Category:Writers from the London Borough of Haringey