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, How the Girl Guides Won the War, and an international development and women’s health activist.

Biography

Janie Hampton is the penultimate daughter of the author Verily Anderson and the playwright Donald Anderson. Her siblings include the author Rachel Anderson and the television producer Eddie Anderson.[1] She has been married since 1971 and has four children.[2]

While living on a small-holding in Shropshire in the 1970s[3] Hampton designed and made clothes that she sold in London, Los Angeles and Rome. Her customers included musician Robert Plant and author Louisa Young.[4]

In 1980 the Hamptons moved to Zimbabwe,[5] where she studied for a BA in Human Sciences,[6] wrote books and articles on health issues,[7][8] and was the Women's Editor of the Manica Post.[9] 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[10]

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.[11]

In 1992 Hampton was elected onto the founding committee of Writers in Oxford and became its chair in 2003.[12][13] As part of the 2001 Year of the Artist she was the first Arts Council-sponsored writer-in-residence in a pub.[14][15] She is an Associate Member of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.[16]

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.[17] Hampton resigned from the trust in 2013 after £2 million had been raised for the renovation of the ship.[18] In 2014, she became patron of the Malawi Association UK and represented Malawi as a guest of HM Queen at the Commonwealth Reception at Buckingham Palace.

In 2016 Hampton founded the World Menstrual Network [19] to connect activists, practitioners, politicians, researchers and individuals around the world working to improve menstrual health. With The Malawi Girl Guides Association, The Cup Effect Hampton ran a feasibility study in a refugee camp, secondary schools and a national park which showed that women and girls in Malawi want to use menstrual cups. Compared to washable cloths or disposable pads or tampons, they found cups more comfortable, cheaper and more environmentally sustainable. As a result, ActionAid Malawi[20] has begun a national menstrual cup programme.[21] Hampton promotes menstrual health through the media, including an essay for Aeon ideas website[22] and for World Menstrual Day.[23]

Journalism, broadcasting and public speaking

Hampton has written articles for various newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian,[24][25] Daily Telegraph,[26] The Times,[27] Independent,[28][29] Spare Rib,[30] Total Politics,[31] New Statesman,[32] Sunday Telegraph,[33] and The Author.[34][35] In 2011, she was appointed Olympics Correspondent of The Oldie magazine.[36]

Hampton writes a "History Girl" blog on the 27th of every month with articles on a range of subjects including Elizabeth Fry,[37] hammock exercise,[38] and great women such as Victorian novelist and philanthropist Felicia Skene.[39]

Hampton has been a journalist in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda[40] and was interviewed about the history of the Olympic Games in London on various radio stations and television channels, including BBC Breakfast[41] and Newsnight.[42]

Hampton has spoken at Cliveden House,[43] The Oldie literary luncheons,[44] The World Literacy Summit and many literary festivals.[45]

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. 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.[46][47][48][49]

The Austerity Olympics, a social history of the London Olympics of 1948, was introduced by Sebastian Coe and quoted by many Olympic observers,[50] including Mayor of London Boris Johnson[51] and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.[52] The book was filmed by BBC TV as Bert and Dickie, starring Matt Smith and Geoffrey Palmer.[53]

How the Girl Guides Won the War chronicled the role of Guides and Brownies in 20th-century feminist history.[54][55] In 2018, Lionsgate of Hollywood obtained the rights to the book for a film, produced by Ryan Christians of Marc Platt Productions.[56] 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
  1. Janie Hampton, "Verily Anderson: Writer of humorous, optimistic children's books and memoirs" (obituary), The Independent, 3 August 2010.
  2. "Four generations", Oxford Mail, 28 March 2014.
  3. "Self-sufficiency", Birmingham Sunday Mercury, 29 September 1973.
  4. "From rags to riches", Kidderminster Shuttle, 15 August 1978
  5. A Family Outing in Africa, Macmillan, 1988.
  6. "Third World Studies for Real", Sesame (Open University), Vol. 1, no. 3, September 1982.
  7. Utano, Manicaland Provincial Health Authority, 1982–85.
  8. "How to do it write", Open Eye, 2005.
  9. "Focus on Women", Manica Post, July 1983 – November 1984.
  10. ."Play and development in rural Zimbabwean children", Early Child Development and Care, pp. 1–61, Vol. 47, 1989.
  11. "Friday Life", Oxford Mail, 28 February 2014.
  12. "The story behind the writers", Oxford Times, 11 October 2002.
  13. "Happy birthday to writer's group", Oxford Times, 20 November 2012.
  14. "More print than pint", Oxford Mail, 13 January 2001.
  15. "Author in pub is novel attraction", Reading Morning Advertiser, 15 January 2001.
  16. Annual Report, Lucy Cavendish College, 2012.
  17. "Janie's floating clinic is a dream come true", The Sunday Post, Scotland, 28 June 2013.
  18. "Janie Hampton announces her retirement from the trust", Chauncy Maples, Lake Malawi's Clinic.
  19. World Menstrual Network, Facebook.
  20. "Malawi", ActionAid.
  21. https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/janiehampton1
  22. Janie Hampton, "The taboo of menstruation", Aeon, 2 May 2017.
  23. Janie Hampton, "World Menstrual Day", The History Girls, 27 May 2016.
  24. "The soapbox in the sun", The Guardian, 29 July 1985.
  25. Janie Hampton, "Lost: one heartfelt tribute", The Guardian, 15 June 2005.
  26. "So happy to be a refugee", Daily Telegraph, 19 July 1985.
  27. "Zimbabwe Conscience", The Times, 25 June 2004.
  28. "Bert Bushnell Obituary", The Independent, 15 February 2010.
  29. Janie Hampton, "Martin Adler" (obituary), The Independent, 27 July 2006.
  30. "Zimbabwe Feminism", Spare Rib, No. 146, September 1984.
  31. "The 1948 London Olympics", Total Politics, August 2011.
  32. "Politics bites back in Nairobi", New Statesman, 26 July 1985.
  33. "Britain's Austerity Olympics", Sunday Telegraph, 19 February 2012.
  34. "You win some...", The Author, Summer 2009.
  35. "Post-delivery syndrome", The Author, Spring 2003.
  36. Jaine Blackman, "Author Janie Hampton – 'Bring on the next chapter'", Oxford Mail, 28 February 2014.
  37. Janie Hampton, "Your Last Paper Five Pound Note by Janie Hampton", The History Girls, 27 October 2016.
  38. Janie Hampton, "History Exercise in a Hammock", The History Girls, 27 August 2016.
  39. Janie Hampton, "Fifi Skene", 27 December 2015.
  40. Family Outing in Africa, Macmillan, 1988.
  41. Broadcast on 3 August 2012.
  42. Broadcast on 20 July 2012.
  43. "Joyce Grenfell and Cliveden", directed by Chris Luscombe, 5 October 2005.
  44. "Literary luncheons", The Oldie, October 2002 and June 2012.
  45. "Writing festival has 'em rolling in the aisles", Ely News and Town Crier, 7 May 1998.
  46. "All teeth and limbs", Literary Review, January 2003.
  47. "Remarkable Joyce", The Oxford Writer, Summer 2003
  48. "An entertaining Mrs Sloane", Sunday Times, 10 November 2002.
  49. "Book of the week", The Week, 18 January 2003.
  50. "On the cheap", The Economist, 2 June 2012.
  51. "Olympics lessons from when we were really running on empty", Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph, 27 December 2011.
  52. Richard Williams, "Opening ceremony will not better Beijing, why not?", The Guardian, 20 December 2011.
  53. "Celebrating Bert and Dickie", Rowing & Regatta, Issue 621, May 2012.
  54. "The War Guides", The Scotsman, 2 August 2010.
  55. "Original Girl Power", Sunday Times, 25 July 2010.
  56. Dave McNary, "Lionsgate to Develop World War II Story 'How the Girl Guides Won the War'", Variety, 13 March 2018.
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