Campbell, Beatrix (1947-…), a British author, journalist, and maker of television documentaries, became a leading writer on socialist and feminist issues. Beatrix Campbell was born on Feb. 3, 1947, in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The daughter of active members of the Communist Party, she became a Communist while still at school. In 1964, she took part in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s protest march to the nuclear weapons research establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire, England.
After leaving school, Campbell went to London and worked for 10 years on The Morning Star, a Communist daily newspaper. In 1979, she joined the staff of the London magazine Time Out. She left the magazine in 1981 following an industrial relations dispute concerning equal pay for all and demands for the right of workers to be consulted over investment. She then joined the majority of Time Out employees in establishing City Limits, a cooperatively owned magazine. Campbell also wrote articles for the British daily newspapers The Guardian and The Independent.
Campbell joined the women’s liberation movement at the beginning of the 1970’s, and the women’s movement shaped her later life and career. In 1971, while still working for The Morning Star, she helped to found the socialist and feminist journal Red Rag. She contributed to a number of socialist and feminist collections of essays. She also wrote and lectured about sexual politics and a feminist approach to trade unionism and economic planning. Her award-winning books include Wigan Pier Revisited (1984), a hard-hitting book about poverty and politics in the United Kingdom; and Diana, Princess of Wales: How Sexual Politics Shook the Monarchy (1998). The Iron Ladies (1987) won the Fawcett Society Book Prize, an annual prize for a literary work that contributes to an understanding of women. In 2009, Campbell was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
