Joan Smith

Known for her human rights activism and writing on subjects such as atheism and feminism, Joan Smith is a columnist, critic and novelist. An Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a regular contributor to BBC radio, she has written five detective novels, two of which have been filmed by the BBC. Her latest novel, What Will Survive, was published in June 2007.

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Joan Smith: What became of mind your own business?

Lamenting the passing of privacy in the Facebook age

Recently by Joan Smith

Joan Smith: The perfect subject for an opera

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Anna Nicole Smith was an adventuress and a self-made woman

They're not called soft subjects for nothing

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Joan Smith: Higher tuition fees and rising graduate unemployment will bring a welcome reassessment of the purpose of universities.

Joan Smith: A gilded cage, but it's still slavery

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Notebook

Joan Smith: Egypt's lesson to Obama: prefer rights to tyranny

Sunday, 30 January 2011

If you want to understand the extraordinary events in Egypt over the past few days, go to a novelist. Almost a decade ago, Alaa Al Aswany exposed the corruption and brutality of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

Joan Smith: If Celyn is a special case, what about the other 770,000?

Sunday, 23 January 2011

Fifteen months ago, I chaired a meeting in the Commons for families with severely disabled children. Most were single parents, and some of their stories were horrendous. Lack of support and competition for scarce resources were common; one mother had become so desperate that she'd thrown herself from a bridge and, amazingly, survived.

Joan Smith: The war of words claims terrible casualties

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Someone turns on the TV and sees a politician being interviewed. He's never voted for her party, he disagrees with what she's saying and he doesn't like her hair. What does he do? He discovers her email address and lets her know what he'd like to do to a bitch like her.

Joan Smith: Shops: do we get the service we deserve?

Friday, 14 January 2011

State of the British high street? It's rubbish. Don't take my word for it: some of the best-known names in retailing have reported poor results over the Christmas period, and they can't blame it all on shoppers staying at home because of the snow. The companies that own Argos, Homebase, PC World and Currys recorded a decline in like-for-like sales, with the electrical retailer Dixons reporting a 4 per cent fall in the UK and Ireland. Even chocolate sales are down on the high street, with the chocolate maker Thorntons suffering a decline of almost 6 per cent.

Joan Smith: Gender inequality, not race, fosters abuse

Sunday, 9 January 2011

Attitudes to women, rather than skin colour, are to blame for the behaviour of those who groomed girls with drink and drugs

Joan Smith: How about telling men, not women, to stay indoors?

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

In the wake of Joanna Yeates's murder, why is the onus placed on only one half of the population to make radical changes in their daily routine?

Joan Smith: Bobby Farrell was the original Daddy Cool

Sunday, 2 January 2011

It was the era of glitter balls, Saturday Night Fever, girls dancing round handbags – and Boney M. When I heard about the sudden death last week of the band's frontman, Bobby Farrell, it took me back to 1978 and one of their biggest hits; it's hard to believe now, but Boney M really did perform in mini cossack costumes and sing hypnotically about the murder of Rasputin, the last tsarina's notorious confidant.

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