Libby Purves
| Libby Purves | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Elizabeth Mary Purves 2 February 1950 London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Radio presenter, journalist and author |
| Spouse(s) | Paul Heiney |
| Children | Nicholas Heiney (died 2006) Rose Heiney |
Elizabeth Mary "Libby" Purves, OBE (born 2 February 1950) is a British radio presenter, journalist and author.
Born in London, a diplomat's daughter, she was raised in her mother's Catholic faith and educated at convent schools in Israel, Bangkok, South Africa and France, and at Beechwood Sacred Heart School, Tunbridge Wells.
Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was awarded a first class degree in English. She was elected Librarian of the Oxford Union. In 1971, she joined the BBC as a studio manager. By the mid-1970s she was a regular presenter on BBC Radio Oxford where she could be frequently heard on the station's early morning shows. In 1976, she joined Brian Redhead on the BBC's Today programme, becoming the programme's first female and youngest ever presenter.
In 1983 she was editor of Tatler magazine for four months.
For her column in The Times newspaper, she was named columnist of the year in 1999 and in the same year was appointed an OBE for services to journalism. She has written books on childcare, twelve novels including Mother Country, a memoir of religious upbringing, Holy Smoke (1998), and a travel book, One Summer's Grace (1989), about a 1,700-mile sailing journey round Britain with children aged three and five.
Purves is a keen sailor and has a monthly column in the sailing magazine Yachting Monthly (some of these columns were collected and published as This Cruising Life, 2001) and is a contributor to The Oldie magazine. She was appointed a patron of the British Art Music Series Trust along with James MacMillan and John Wilson. She served ten years as a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum.
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