Cristina Odone

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Cristina Patricia Odone (born 11 November 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya^[1]) is an Italian journalist, editor, and writer living in the United Kingdom. She has written for several newspapers, and currently writes for The Observer and the The Daily Telegraph. She was formerly the editor of The Catholic Herald, and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She has also written books.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Editor of The Catholic Herald 2.3 TV critic 2.4 Author 2.5 Deputy editor of the New Statesman 2.6 Religious commentator 2.7 Columnist for The Observer 3 Sources 4 Further reading

[edit] Early life and education

Odone was born of an Italian father, Augusto Odone, and a Swedish mother.^[2] She has a brother, Francesco, and a half-brother, Lorenzo, from her father's marriage to Michaela Odone.^[3]

Odone's father was a World Bank official, which occasionally led to the family having to move to a different country. The family lived in Rome from 1962 to 1969, then moved to Washington DC, where they lived until 1977. Odone went initially to Marymount School, then later to the National Cathedral School. When her parents divorced, Odone moved to the United Kingdom to go to St Clare's, a boarding school in Oxford.^[4] Her father was stationed in the Comoro Islands from 1978 until 1981.^{[citation needed]}

Odone studied French literature and history at Worcester College, Oxford.^[4]

Odone has Italian nationality,^[5] though she describes herself as an Italian-American.^[6] A book that accused her of anti-Semitism was withdrawn by the publisher, which paid her substantial damages.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

After university, Odone worked briefly at The Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom, but left following a violent disagreement with the news editor, Peter Stanford, because he had published a letter attacking Odone by Victoria Gillick, an opponent of birth control. Odone later worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. as an advisor to European companies.^[4]

[edit] Editor of The Catholic Herald

In 1991, Odone became the editor of The Catholic Herald. Peter Stanford had been forced to resign after publishing a book about Catholicism and sex. He had proposed that Odone be his replacement.^[4] Odone left The Catholic Herald in 1996 to finish her second novel, A Perfect Wife.^[7] In 2002, Odone gave an interview to the Independent newspaper in which she described herself as having been "fired".^[8] Odone says she was misquoted and cites other contemporaneous news reports that show she resigned (see talk page).

[edit] TV critic

In 1996, Odone became the television critic for The Daily Telegraph, though she nearly lost the job immediately. In an interview with a journalist from The Guardian, she had said that she regarded television "as a medium for information rather than entertainment", and that she watched it "rarely". To the same question, she had told Charles Moore, the editor of the Telegraph, "I love it". After an initial angry response, Moore relented and Odone kept her job, which she held for the next two years.^[8]

[edit] Author

Odone had two novels published, The Shrine (1996)^[9] and A Perfect Wife (1997).^[10] She contributed to Why I am still a Catholic (2005)^[11]

[edit] Deputy editor of the New Statesman

In 1998, Odone became deputy editor of the New Statesman.^[12]

In 2003, Odone married Edward Lucas, a journalist for The Economist, and gave birth to a daughter, Isabel.^[12]

Odone resigned as deputy editor of the New Statesman in November 2004. She denied reports that the cause was a poor working relationship with editor Peter Wilby, culminating in a row over a cover depicting Tony Blair as Joseph Stalin. Indeed, she claimed that she and Wilby had a good working relationship, and had both been victims of New Labour plots to destabilise the New Statesman, orchestrated by Tony Blair. She claimed that the real reason for her departure was an offer to present a programme on Channel 4 television about religion.^[12]

She claimed that "neo-Left" colleagues had been plotting against the New Statesman, stating "However nasty the Right gets, the Left gets much more wicked".^[12] She claimed this "neo-Left" was making voodoo dolls of her and wishing cancer upon her. One of those attacked, Johann Hari, questioned her sanity in response, pointing out a number of logical inconsistencies in her claims.^[13]

[edit] Religious commentator

Odone contributed regularly to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day until 2002.

Odone gave the Church of England's annual Tyndale lecture in 2002, entitled "Why the chattering classes are afraid of Christianity".^[14]

[edit] Columnist for The Observer

Odone continued to write for The Observer and The Daily Telegraph,^[12] and appear on political programmes on UK television.^[15]

[edit] Sources

1. ^ Odone, Cristina. "What a tangled web we are weaving", The Observer, 2006-11-05.
2. ^ Odone, Cristina. "How well they knew us, those old masters", The Observer, 2006-03-26.
3. ^ Odone, Cristina. "'Lorenzo's oil, which my father and stepmother invented, was vindicated'", The Observer, 2005-07-17.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Hebblethwaite, Peter. "Lorenzo's sister edits Catholic paper", National Catholic Reporter, 1993-02-26.
5. ^ Cristina Odone's passport [see Talk page]
6. ^ Odone, Cristina. "'Rainier married Kelly and they sowed the seeds of our celebrity culture'", The Observer, 2005-04-03.
7. ^ Brown, Andrew. "After the apocalypse, enter Ms Jones", The Independent, 1996-08-18.
8. ^ ^{a b} Cripps, Charlotte. "Media: My greatest mistake: 32 - Cristina Odone, Deputy Editor of the New Statesman", The Independent, 2002-11-12.
9. ^ Odone, Cristina (1996). The Shrine. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81661-6.
10. ^ Odone, Cristina (1997). A Perfect Wife. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81811-2.
11. ^ Stanford, Peter (2005). Why I am still a Catholic. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-8577-4.
12. ^ ^{a b c d e} Rowan, David. "Interview: Cristina Odone, New Statesman (Evening Standard)", David Rowan, 2004-11-03.
13. ^ Hari, Johann. "Odone goes mad. Again", Johann Hari, 2004-11-07.
14. ^ Odone, Cristina. "Some may hate us, but here we stand", The Guardian, 2003-10-28.
15. ^ Cristina Odone. IMDb. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.

[edit] Further reading

• Picture of Cristina Odone, from her profile at The Guardian
• Results for Cristina Odone, a list of articles by or about Odone from various publications
• NS Library—Articles by Cristina Odone, a list of Odone's articles for the New Statesman