Joan Bakewell

Books

Great dames

• 26 September 2005

Chin Up, Girls! A book of women's obituaries from the Daily Telegraph
Edited by Georgia Powell and Katharine Ramsay John Murray, 362pp, £16.99
ISBN 0719563003

Books

Miss Perfect

• 08 August 2005

Take a Girl Like Me
Diana Melly Chatto & Windus, 280pp, £14.99
ISBN 0701179066

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 22 November 2004

In Cape Town, some accuse the Mbeki government of genocide because of its position on Aids. Is the world listening? Or have we all gone down with genocide fatigue?

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 23 August 2004

I'm staying at the same hotel in Edinburgh as Lynne Truss and Barbara Trapido. At 2am a fire alarm brings a drift of authors downstairs in red satin pyjamas, kaftans, neat T-shirts

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 22 March 2004

At the Spitz gallery, I see the wall where Betsy Schneider's photographs of her naked little daughter once hung. The empty hooks and spaces are sad evidence of paedophile hysteria

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 13 October 2003

Since the story of my love affair with Harold Pinter was published, journalists have been asking if I was going to the first night of his play. Best, I thought, to catch a preview

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 07 April 2003

I watch the poet Thom Gunn receive a literary award. I remember him from Cambridge in 1953, and I swear he was wearing the same leather jacket and buckled leather belt

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 18 November 2002

I took my grandson to St Paul's Cathedral to show him Nelson's tomb, but the entry charge is now £6. "What if I just wanted to pray?" I asked, and got an icy response

Diary - Joan Bakewell

• 06 May 2002

With extreme distaste, I read a poem about a Roman centurion's homosexual fantasies about Christ. I hope it showed on my face. Not my kind of thing at all. By Joan Bakewell

As a child I was told that the correct term was "negro". Now it is "people of colour". It is hard to keep up

• 15 January 2001