Jill Tweedie

Who was Jill Tweedie?

Jill Sheila Tweedie was an influential British feminist, writer and broadcaster. She was educated at the independent Croydon High School in Croydon, South London. She is mainly remembered for her column in The Guardian on feminist issues, 'Letters from a faint-hearted feminist' and for her autobiography Eating Children. She succeeded Mary Stott as a principal columnist on The Guardian's Women's Page.

Her light style and left-leaning politics captured the spirit of British feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. In November 2005 she was one of only five women included in the Press Gazette's 40-strong gallery of most influential British journalists.

She was married three times—to the Hungarian Count Bela Cziraky, to Bob d'Ancona, and finally to journalist Alan Brien, her partner until her death from motor neurone disease in 1993.

She is commemorated in a group portrait at the National Portrait Gallery with fellow Guardian Women's Page contributors Mary Stott, Polly Toynbee, Posy Simmonds and Liz Forgan.