Introduction
Lucy Katherine Mangan (born 1974) is a Britishjournalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for The Guardian. Her writing revolves around feminism.
Early life and education
Mangan grew up in Catford, south east London, to parents originally from Lancashire. Her father worked in theatre and her mother was an NHS doctor. She studied English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor, but worked instead in a bookshop until she found a work experience placement at The Guardian in 2003.
Career
Mangan writes a regular column, TV reviews and occasional features at The Guardian.Her book My Family and other Disasters (2009) is a collection of her newspaper columns. She has also written books about her childhood and her wedding.
Mangan also has a regular column for Stylist magazine and has been a judge for the BookTrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
Books
My Family and other Disasters was described by The Bookbag as "the kind of book to take on holiday, to dip into at random moments".
The Reluctant Bride was called "outrageously frank, brilliantly entertaining and laugh-out-loud" by the Lancashire Evening Post.
Hopscotch & Handbags was reviewed by Spiked as "souped-up, satin-sheet, five-star bilge – with lots and lots of lovely exaggeration, jokes and stylistic quirks." The review continues: "I can’t say I've ever found the experience of being a girl 'so appalling' that I have to retreat to the woods to howl – but reading Mangan’s book brings me close. Forget childbirth and Brazilian waxing, if you want a truly agonising female experience flick through Hopscotch and Handbags."
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory was reviewed by the San Diego Book Review as "a book which must accompany viewing whichever platform your heart connects to Charlie, the boy we all dreamed we could be, befriend so we too could enjoy the spoils of the candy forest and meet the Umpa Lumpas first hand."
Personal life
Mangan is married but has kept her maiden name. She and her husband have one son.
Works
- My Family and other Disasters, Hachette (2010) ISBN 0852653689
- The Reluctant Bride: One Woman's Journey (Kicking and Screaming) Down the Aisle, Guardian Books (2012) ISBN 184854359X
- Hopscotch & Handbags: The Truth about Being a Girl, Headline (2013) ISBN 9780755316489
- Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory, Puffin UK/US (2014) ISBN 9780147513489
- Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, Square Peg (2018) ISBN 9781784709228