Rosie Boycott - Outside Journalism

Outside Journalism

Boycott has presented the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read. She has sat on judging panels for literary awards, notably chairing the panel judging the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction. She is also a media advisor for the Council of Europe. Boycott is a Trustee of the Hay Festival in the UK and in Cartagena, Colombia. In March 2002, she denounced the New Labour government as "more reminiscent of a dictatorship than a free healthy democratic system", and announced her support for the Liberal Democrats. She was rumoured to have considered becoming a Parliamentary candidate.

Boycott has made several appearances on Newsnight Review and other cultural and current affairs programmes, where the fact that she is a recovering alcoholic has been discussed. She started drinking heavily again after losing her job at the Express. She was banned from driving for three years in September 2003 after crashing on the A303 in Wiltshire, injuring another driver. She was cut free from the wreckage. A court was told she had also been caught drunk driving the day before. Since her accident, Boycott has been running a farm in Somerset. She campaigned for Lady Diana Spencer in the 2002 BBC programme to find the greatest Briton.

On 5 August 2008 she was appointed as the chairman of London Food as part of Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson's attempt to help improve Londoners’ access to healthy, locally produced and affordable food. In September 2007, Boycott appeared in the third series of Hell's Kitchen, and was the first contestant to be voted off. In June 2009 she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef. The same month she was one of five volunteers who took part in a BBC series of three programmes Famous, Rich and Homeless about living penniless on the streets of London.