Dea Birkett (born 1958) is a British writer,

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, broadcaster and a former

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

performer.

Biography

Birkett was brought up in the suburbs of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. As a child she watched the circus parade through her town, which made her want to be in a circus. When she had her eldest daughter

Storme Toolis Storme Toolis (born 26 November 1992) is a British actress from London. Early life Toolis was born and raised in London. Her father journalist Kevin Toolis was born in Edinburgh; his parents originated from Achill Island in County Mayo, Ir ...

in year 1992, she left her daughter with her child’s father Kevin Toolis, so she could run away to the circus. She left the circus in year 1993 but when Birkett turned 60 years of age, she “ran away” again to return to the Circus life beside her youngest child River Toolis.

Career

During her time as a journalist Birkett had written on social issues for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and broadcast for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. She is creative director of the charit
Kids in Museums
and Ringmaster o
Circus 250
She was awarded the

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to ...

in 1993 for her book ''Jella,'' in which follows Birkett's journey from Africa to the UK.

Bibliography

*''Spinsters Abroad'' (1989) *''Jella: A Woman at Sea'' (1992) *''

Mary Kingsley ''For the English novelist, see Mary St Leger Kingsley.'' Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, writer and explorer who made numerous travels through West Africa and wrote several books on ...

: Imperial Adventuress'' (1992) *''Serpent in Paradise'' (1997) (about her stay on

Pitcairn Island Pitcairn Island is the only inhabited island of the Pitcairn Islands, in the southern Pacific Ocean, of which many inhabitants are descendants of mutineers of HMS ''Bounty''. Geography The island is of volcanic origin, with a rugged cliff ...

)

References

External links

Official site
British journalists British writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People from Surrey 1958 births Living people {{UK-writer-stub