Mariella Frostrup

Frostrup’s school years were spent in Wicklow, Ireland and from there she moved to London, working as a public relations executive for Phonogram Records between 1980-90; coordinating the publicity for the Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1985; and, after leaving Phonogram, started television work as a presenter and film critic appearing on programmes for Channel 4 and ITV throughout the 90s. Frostrup is known for her interviews with celebrities, writers and artists and has also written for The Daily Telegraph as a travel writer and contributed articles for The Guardian, The Observer, The Mail on Sunday, Harpers & Queen and the New Statesman. For almost 20 years she was The Observer’s agony aunt on its relationships page. She has also been on the judging panels for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Evening Standard British Film Awards. Frostrup was for many years the presenter of The Book Show each week on Sky Arts, also hosting the channel’s annual string of daily talk shows, Hay On Sky, from a specially-built television studio in the centre of the Hay Literary Festival. She presented the BBC Radio 2 show The Green Room and was from 2002-20 was the regular presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme Open Book, interviewing authors and publishers and reviewing new fiction and non-fiction books. In 2020 she joined Times Radio to present an early afternoon programme featuring arts, culture and social issues coverage. She is an active political commentator and campaigner and and is author of books such as Cracking The Menopause and The Indispensible Guide to 21st Century Living.