Katharine Quarmby
Award-winning writer, editor and journalist.
Author: Katharine Quarmby
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I dug this it out of a cupboard today and dusted it down – so many of the arguments about the legitimacy of the second chamber still hold true today. When I worked as a researcher for the Labour leader and front-bench in the House of Lords in the mid-nineties, we spent a lot of…
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Today Members of Parliament will vote on the Second Reading of a Bill which would, if passed, legalise assisted suicide (or dying, if you prefer), in the UK. It is estimated that, if passed, it would mean that around 1,500 would be ‘helped to die’ if it became law. In 2010 I wrote an article…
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As Iran and the West enter a detente phase, this subtle, intelligent book offers compelling insight into the role of women in Iran. Nina Ansary, an Iranian academic living in the US since middle childhood when she left her homeland at the onset of the Iranian revolution, concentrates on the situation from that crucial point…
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About a month ago, I designed and sent out a short survey about disability hate crime, concentrating on motivation, but also covering a few other questions such as location of incidents, gender and race of attackers and nature of the incident or attack. This was done under the auspices of the Disability Hate Crime Network,…
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Over the last few years many disability hate crime campaigners have called for perpetrator analysis. I am one of those: I have been advocating for it since 2008, when I wrote the disability hate crime report, Getting Away With Murder, (for the UK Disabled People’s Council, Disability Now magazine and Scope). At the (British) Disability Hate Crime Network,…
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In 2013, when my book, No Place to Call Home: Inside the Real Lives of Gypsies and Travellers came out, I interviewed some elders from the community about the importance of taking part in elections and what they intended to do. Of course things have moved on since then and Operation Traveller Vote has grown…
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A guest blog here by my friend, and colleague on the Disability Hate Crime Network, where we both serve as pro bono co-ordinators, on vulnerability and disability hate crime. Anne has huge experience of navigating the criminal justice system as an expert. She serves as an advisor to the Metropolitan Police on disability hate crime.…
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It was great to hear Sam Lee talk about his project, collecting songs from Irish Travellers and the Romani people, on Radio 4 this week. This is such important work, and Sam’s been patiently doing it for some years now. Romani and Traveller singers have kept the flame of our common folk music alive, for…
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A few months ago Mosaic Science magazine, which is published by the Wellcome Trust, asked me to look at sexuality and disability – how, in essence, disabled peoples’ access to intimacy is sometimes hindered, sometimes forbidden and sometimes mocked. I feel really grateful that I worked on this project – but it couldn’t have been…
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Like most Londoners, I suspect, I don’t actually get to the theatre that often but this week was unusual. I saw three performances, ranging from Treasure Island at the National Theatre, Jabberwocky at the Little Angel Puppet Theatre in Islington and, last night, The Day After (They Went Off On One). The first was for…
Katharine Quarmby 