Biography / Profile Background
Introduction :
- Sonia Purnell is a British journalist and writer.
- She is also a biographer and has written the biographies of Clementine Churchill and Boris Johnson, as well as of Virginia Hall.
Personal Life : Parents, Family and Education
- Sonia Purnell grew up in England. She had two sisters, Sue and Sally. Both her sisters lost their battles with cancer.
- Sonia is married to Jonathan Prynn, a consumer business editor for The Evening Standard. Sonia has two sons with Jonathan Prynn: Laurie Purnell Prynn and Joe Purnell Prynn.
- She resides in the West End of London with her family.
- Sonia attended the Guildford County Grammar School in Guildford, England.
- Following her graduation from high school, Sonia attended Sussex University in Falmer, Sussex. She was there from 1981 to 1985 and graduated with a degree in Law and Languages. During her degree, she also spent a year studying at the University of Florence, where she wrote a dissertation on how British and Italian media are similar.
Career, Job, Salary and Net Worth :
- After graduating from Sussex University, Sonia worked for The Economist Intelligence Unit. She then spent some time as an editor for a financial magazine, and then became the Whitehall Correspondent and Brussels Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 1995.
- Following her stint at The Daily Telegraph, Sonia was a Whitehall Editor for the Daily Mail from 1996 to 1999.
- From 2009 to 2010, Sonia focused on writing an unofficial biography of politician and current UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The biography was published by Aurum Press in October 2011 and titled Just Boris.
- She is currently a freelance writer, broadcaster, and biographer, and has followed up her initial biography with two more: First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill (published in 2016), about Winston Churchill’s wife, and A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, World War II’s Most Dangerous Spy (published in 2019), about the life of an heiress and spy Virginia Hall.
Interesting Facts, Height and Trivia :
- Sonia has written articles for prestigious newspapers all over the world, including the Wall Street Journal, as well as the London Evening Standard and the Independent on Sunday.
- The film rights to A Woman of No Importance were acquired by Paramount before the book was released, with JJ Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, at the helm. The film is currently in production with Daisy Ridley in the role of Virginia Hall. Her book on Clementine Churchill titled First Lady, was also optioned by Hollywood as well as becoming a Plutarch Award finalist, and her first biography, Just Boris, made the coveted long list of the Orwell Prize.
- She met and worked with Boris Johnson during her time at the Daily Telegraph in the 1990s. Sonia has consistently been critical of Johnson’s personality and politics. She has also stated that he did not respect her.
Do you have book club questions for a woman of no importance? It was a great read!