Armitstead was born in south London, England, and spent her early childhood in Northern Nigeria, attending primary school in Kaduna.[3][4]
Place of Work
She worked as a trainee reporter in South Wales, before joining the Hampstead & Highgate Express as a theatre critic and sub-editor, moving from there to the Financial Times and then in 1992 to The Guardian, where she has been Arts Editor, Literary Editor (in which position she was described as "Respected blue-stocking and keen cyclist who keeps the wheels turning on ever more ambitious books pages"),[5] Head of Books and, most recently, Associate Editor (Culture).[3]
Publication
Armitstead's essays have been published in New Performance (Macmillan, 1994) and Women: A Cultural Review (Oxford University Press, 1996). She was editor of The Bedside Guardian 2016, which Ian Sansom described as "a work I confidently predict will stand the test of time."[6] Armitstead also edited Tales of Two Londons: Stories From a Fractured City (O/R Books, 2018), an anthology that (as explained in the Introduction) "sets out to mirror London's diversity by ensuring that more than a third of the voices are of those not born in the UK",[7] and about which The London Magazine reviewer wrote: "I cannot imagine anyone who has ever lived or worked in the capital not finding a point of connection or a memory resurfaced."[8]
Armitstead presents The Guardian's weekly books podcast.[15][16] The podcast includes interviews with authors.[17][18] The show is cohosted by Richard Lea and Sian Cain.[19] The show discusses poetry, books, and other works of literature.[20]
^Jain, Devanshi (28 September 2018). Mitra, Oishani (ed.). "7 Literary Podcasts for Book Lovers". The Curious Reader. Archived from the original on 25 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
