Pearson attended Market Harborough Upper School (now Robert Smyth School), then Lincoln Christ's Hospital School, both comprehensive schools. She went to the University of Cambridge, then taught at an inner London school. She also sold advertising.

Journalism

Prior to joining The Mail, Pearson was a columnist with London's Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph. She began her career with The Independent where she was a sub-editor, before moving toThe Independent on Sunday in 1992, where she was assistant to Blake Morrison before becoming a TV critic, winning Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993.

Broadcasting

Pearson has presented Channel 4's J'Accuse; BBC Radio 4's The Copysnatchers and appeared as a regular panellist on The Late Review (the predecessor of Newsnight Review).

Books

Pearson is the author of a novel, I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), a "chick lit" examination of the pressures of modern motherhood. The book was a bestseller in England and America. She has since authored I Think I Love You (2010), a novel about a teenager's passion for David Cassidy in the 1970s, and the man who is responsible for writing the so-called replies from David Cassidy to the teenage fans, two characters who later meet up again 20 years after experiencing marriage, divorce, and kids. The latter book has received good reviews for its warmth and sincerity.

Controversy

In October 2006, in the Daily Mail, Pearson expressed the view that women wearing the niqab "have no place on British streets".

In May 2008, she angered Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, by suggesting her daughter Princess Beatrice was overweight. There appeared to be public support for the princess, with some commenting on Ms Pearson's own apparent lack of anatomical perfection. The Duchess called Pearson for a meeting with herself and her daughter, but Pearson ignored them. On the TV programme This Morning the Duchess attacked the absent columnist.

Pearson was being sued by Miramax for non-delivery of a second novel, I Think I Love You, for which she received a $700,000 USD advance in 2003. Delivery was due in 2005. In her column of the 17th February 2010, she claims to have finished the novel though does not comment on whether legal proceedings for non-delivery have been dropped. The novel I Think I Love You has since been published.

Pearson was married to fellow journalist Simon Pearson, whom she married in May 1988 in Lincoln. She now lives with Anthony Lane, film critic for The New Yorker. They have a son (born September 1999) and daughter (born February 1996) and have lived in Cambridge since 2003. Pearson ended her column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, amid reports that she is to join The Daily Telegraph, with a column on her experiences of depression. Pearson is set to reprise her role as a columnist with The Daily Telegraph from September 2010.

• I Don't Know How She Does It (2002) ISBN 0-7011-7302-5
• I Think I Love You (2010) ISBN 10-0701176970; ISBN 13-978-0701176976

Video clips

• S4C Without Walls clip from 1994

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