Melissa Ann Benn (born 1957) is a British journalist and writer. She is the daughter of

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

and

Caroline Benn Caroline Middleton DeCamp Benn (13 October 1926 – 22 November 2000), formerly Viscountess Stansgate, was an educationalist and writer, and wife of the British Labour politician Tony Benn (formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate). Biography Benn ...

Biography

Benn was born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. She has three brothers, including

Hilary Benn Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (born 26 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central since a by-election in 1999. He served in the Cabinet from 2003 to 2010, under both Tony Bla ...

and Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate. She attended

Fox Primary School Fox Primary School is a primary school in London for children between the ages of 4 and 11, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is located on Kensington Place, between Kensington Church Street and Notting Hill Gate. The school h ...

and

Holland Park School Holland Park School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form in Holland Park, London, England. In 2013, it has attained academy status. Opened in 1958, the school became the flagship for comprehensive education, and at one time had ove ...

and graduated with a first in History from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. Benn spent several years working at the

National Council for Civil Liberties Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes hu ...

, as an assistant to

Patricia Hewitt Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is an Australian-born British government adviser and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, she previously served as Secretar ...

, later Secretary of State for Health in

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

's government, and then as a researcher at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, under Professor Stuart Hall, working on deaths in custody. Benn then worked as a journalist for ''

City Limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate limi ...

'' magazine. Subsequently, she has written for other publications, including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' and ''

Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacque ...

''. Her first novel, ''Public Lives'', published in 1995, was described by writer

Margaret Forster Margaret Forster (25 May 1938 – 8 February 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and critic, best known for the 1965 novel ''Georgy Girl'', made into a successful film of the same name, which inspired a hit song by T ...

as "remarkably sophisticated for a first". In 1998 Jonathan Cape published Benn's ''Madonna and Child: towards a modern politics of motherhood'' which caused some controversy. The reviewers for ''

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' criticised the book, while the ''

Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

'' called it "a reflective, rich and rewarding investigation into the ...conditions of mothers' lives". ''The Guardian'' featured Benn as one of a number of Britain's leading feminist writers at the time. Benn co-edited, with Clyde Chitty, ''A Tribute to Caroline Benn: Education and Democracy'' (2004), collecting various papers relevant to the campaign for

comprehensive education Comprehensive may refer to: *Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. *Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement o ...

, an issue on which her mother had been a prominent campaigner. In recent years, Benn has become an advocate for comprehensives and a critic of many aspects of government policy on education. In 2006, with

Fiona Millar Fiona Millar (born 2 January 1958) is a British journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues. She is a former adviser to Cherie Blair. She contributes to ''The Guardian'' and the Local Schools Network website. Early life Millar a ...

, she wrote a pamphlet entitled ''A Comprehensive Future: Quality and Equality for All our Children'', which was launched at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in January 2006 at a meeting addressed by the former leader of the Labour Party

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

and a former Secretary of State for Education

Estelle Morris Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, (born 17 June 1952), is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) ...

. Her second novel, ''One of Us'', a story of two families set against the backdrop of the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, was published in 2008. Benn helped form the Local Schools Network in 2010, a pro-

state schools State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary educational institution, schools that educate all students without charge. They are ...

pressure group. ''School Wars'' (2011) studies the UK's post-war comprehensive education system. ''What Should We Tell Our Daughters?'' was published in 2013. In 2012, Benn won the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award, presented by the

National Union of Teachers The National Union of Teachers (NUT; ) was a trade union for school teachers in Education in England, England, Education in Wales, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was a member of the Trades Union Congress. In March 2017, NU ...

for her campaigning and work for the cause of comprehensive education.

Personal life

Melissa Benn lives in London with her husband Paul Gordon and their two daughters. In accordance with her support for the state education system, her children attended state schools. She is the daughter of politician Tony Benn and writer-educationalist Caroline Benn.

Selected publications

*''Sexual Harassment at Work'' ( NCCL pamphlet; 1982) *''The Rape Controversy'', with Tess Gill and

Anna Coote Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221) ...

(NCCL pamphlet; second and third editions only, 1983, 1986) *''Death in the City'', with Ken Worpole (non-fiction; Canary Press, 1985) *''Courts and Sentencing'' (Children's Legal Centre pamphlet; 1987) *''Public Lives'' (novel; 1995) *''Madonna and Child: Politics of Modern Motherhood'' (non-fiction; Vintage, 1998) *''A tribute to Caroline Benn: education and democracy'' (non-fiction; Continuum, 2004) *''A Comprehensive Future: Quality and Equality for all our Children'' (non-fiction; Compass, 2006) *''One of Us'' (novel; Chatto and Windus, 2008) *''School Wars: The Battle for Britain's Education'' (non-fiction; Verso, 2011) *''What should we tell our daughters?: The pleasures and pressures of growing up female'' (non-fiction; John Murray, 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benn, Melissa 1957 births 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers Academics of the Open University Alumni of the London School of Economics Comprehensive education Daughters of viscounts English journalists English people of American descent English people of Scottish descent English women non-fiction writers Living people People educated at Holland Park School People from Hammersmith

Melissa Melissa is a female given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (''mélissa''), "bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (''meli''), "honey". In Hittite, ''melit'' signifies "honey". ''Melissa'' also refers to the plant ''Me ...