Lynsey Hanley (born 12 April 1976) is a British writer and academic.

Biography

Hanley was born in

Solihull Solihull ( ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Arden, Warwickshire, Forest of Arden ar ...

and grew up on a council estate in the suburb of

Chelmsley Wood Chelmsley Wood, sometimes called just Chelmsley, is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, with a population of 12,453. It is located near Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre ...

. She studied English at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

. Hanley is a visiting fellow in cultural history at

Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public university, public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823. This ...

. She is the author of ''Estates: an Intimate History'' and ''Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide'', and was a regular contributor to ''

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 ...

'' from 2005 to 2022. As of 2020, she was writing a book about "the cultural, ecological and social significnace" of public transport. A frequent theme of Hanley's work is

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...

, often based on her own journey from a working-class background to attending university and becoming a writer. In June 2025, Hanley published a letter in support of

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

inclusivity. As of 2023 she lives in Liverpool.

Bibliography

*''Estates: an Intimate History'' (2007) *''Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide'' (2016)

References

External links

Articles in ''The Guardian''
1976 births Living people Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Academics of Liverpool John Moores University British media critics British political commentators English columnists English women non-fiction writers English non-fiction writers British opinion journalists People from Solihull The Guardian journalists {{UK-writer-stub