Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee
Toynbee in Westminster, December 2006
Born	Mary Louisa Toynbee (1946-12-27) 27 December 1946 (age 70) Isle of Wight, England, UK
Nationality	British
Education	St Anne's College, Oxford
Occupation	Journalist, writer
Notable credit(s)	Social Affairs editor: the BBC (1988–1995) Columnist: The Guardian (since 1998).
Spouse(s)	Peter Jenkins (1970–1992) David Walker
Children	3
Relatives	Arnold J. Toynbee (grandfather) Philip Toynbee (father)

Mary Louisa Toynbee, known as Polly Toynbee (/ˈtɔɪnbi/; born 27 December 1946), is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998.

She is a social democrat and was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the 1983 general election. She now broadly supports the Labour Party.

Toynbee previously worked as social affairs editor for the BBC and also for The Independent newspaper. She is vice-president of the British Humanist Association, having previously served as its president between 2007 and 2012. She was also named 'Columnist of the Year' at the 2007 British Press Awards.

Polly Toynbee was born at Yafford on the Isle of Wight, the second daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee (by his first wife Anne), granddaughter of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and great-great niece of philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee, after whom Toynbee Hall in the East End of London is named. Her parents divorced when Toynbee was aged four and she moved to London with her mother.

After attending Badminton School, a girls' independent school in Bristol, followed by the Holland Park School, a state comprehensive school in London (she had failed the 11-plus examination) she passed one A-level. She won a scholarship to read history at St Anne's College, Oxford, but dropped out of university after eighteen months. During her gap year, in 1966, she worked for Amnesty International in Rhodesia (which had just unilaterally declared independence) until she was expelled by the government. She published her first novel, Leftovers, in 1966. Following her expulsion from Rhodesia, Toynbee revealed the existence of the "Harry" letters, which detailed the alleged funding of Amnesty International by the British government.