Libby Purves OBE

Libby Purves presented BBC Radio 4's Midweek for a tremendous 33 years - a programme of lively and diverse conversation; she is a Times columnist, broadcaster, author and speaker.

Libby is a former chief theatre critic for The Times and is now reviewing on theatrecat.com – she has hosted presentations on theatre for HSBC clients and interviewed on stage for the Old Vic and the National Theatre.

She was the youngest and first ever woman presenter of the Today programme, and has presented Midweek since 1983, as well as having fronted The Learning Curve and numerous documentaries for BBC Radio 4.

Libby Purves is a major columnist for The Times and writes for many other publications including the Daily Mail. She was awarded the O.B.E. for her services to journalism in 1999 and was Columnist of the Year in the same year. She accidentally edited The Tatler for 6 months in 1982. Equally accidentally, she was persuaded into doing a successful stand-up comedy routine for Comic Relief in 2009.

As an author she has written a series of books on childcare and family life, as well as numerous well regarded novels. She has published a memoir on radio and a classic account of sailing around mainland Britain.

As the daughter of a travelling diplomat, she was educated in Israel, Bangkok, France, Johannesburg, Tunbridge Wells and at St Anne's College Oxford, where she obtained a first class honours degree in English Language and Literature.

Libby Purves is a writer and broadcaster par excellence and has that certain something which combines natural wit with an incisive perception. She is married to the broadcaster Paul Heiney, and her interests are education, parenting, sailing, travelling and theatre.