Miranda Sawyer

Education and early life

Sawyer was born in Bristol Sawyer was educated at Cheadle Hulme School, a private school in Stockport, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford where she was an undergraduate student of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Career

Sawyer moved to London in 1988 to begin a career as a journalist with the magazine Smash Hits. In 1993, she became the youngest winner of the Periodical Publishers Association Magazine Writer of the Year award for her work on Select magazine. She wrote columns for Time Out (1993–96) and the Daily Mirror (2000–2003), and was a frequent contributor to Mixmag and The Face during the 1990s.

In 2002 Sawyer was one of the curators of New Order's box set Retro compiling the Pop disc and contributing sleeve notes to the release.

, Sawyer is a feature writer for The Guardian and The Observer and serves as a radio critic. Her work has been published in GQ, Vogue and The Guardian and she is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. She served as a member of the judging panel for the 2007 Turner Prize and the panel that awarded Liverpool its European Capital of Culture status in 2008.

In 2004, Sawyer wrote, researched and presented an hour-long documentary for Channel 4 about the age of consent, Writing in The Guardian in 2003 an article entitled Sex is not just for grown-ups she argued for the age of consent to be reduced to 12. In 2007, she presented a highly personal documentary for More4 on abortion rights in the US, A Matter of Life and Death, as part of its Travels with My Camera strand.

Sawyer interviewed Russell Brand for The Guardian in the aftermath of the Russell Brand Show prank calls row.

She has been an occasional guest on the UK arts programme Newsnight Review and The Culture Show on BBC Two, and also BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music's Radcliffe and Maconie Show. She also took part in a celebrity edition of BBC Two's afternoon quiz show The Weakest Link.

Her first book Park and Ride, a travel book on the Great British suburbs, was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1999. Her second book Out of Time on the midlife crisis was published by HarperCollins in 2016. Her third book Uncommon People on the history of Britpop was published by Hachette in 2024.

Personal life

Sawyer married the Belfast-born comedian and actor Michael Smiley in 2007. In 2014, she appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as herself.

References

References

1. Anon. (2010). "Sawyer, Miranda Caroline".
2. is an English author, journalist and broadcaster.[https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mirandasawyer Miranda Sawyer] at ''[[The Observer]]''
3. {{IMDb name. 1032518
4. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09f8wy1 ''Sound and Vision''] (BBC Radio 6 Music)
5. (24 May 2002). "Miranda Sawyer ''Newsnight'' presenter profile".
6. (August 2021). "Students Given Expert Creative Career Advice". [[Cheadle Hulme School]]}} {{dead.
7. Sawyer, Miranda. (2021). "Billie Eilish Interview: To always try to look good is such a loss of joy and freedom".
8. Sawyer, Miranda. (November 2, 2003). "Sex is not just for grown-ups". The Observer.
9. ''Sex Before 16: How the Law Is Failing''
10. Moran, Caitlin. (2007-04-13). "Abortion: why it's the ultimate motherly act". [[The Times]].
11. (9 November 2008). "Brand on the run".
12. (1999). "Park and Ride". Little, Brown and Company.
13. (2016). "Out of Time: midlife, if you still think you're young". HarperCollins Publishers Australia.
14. (2024). "Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs". Hachette.
15. "Brian Pern The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, Episode 3 - Part Three: Death of Rock".