Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee, 27 December 1946) is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing, though during the 2010 general election she urged a tactical vote in support of the Liberal Democrats to bring about a Lab-Lib coalition in support of proportional representation. She was appointed President of the British Humanist Association in July 2007. In 2007 she was named ‘Columnist of the Year’ at the British Press Awards.

Books in order of publication:

Leftovers: A Novel (1966)

A Working Life (1971)

Hospital (1977)

Way We Live Now (1981)

Lost Children: Story of Adopted Children Searching for Their Mothers (1985)

Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain (2003)

Better or Worse?: Has Labour Delivered? (2005)

Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today (with David Walker, 2008)

Cameron’s Coup (with David Walker, 2015)

An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and other Radicals (2023)

The Only Way Is Up: How to Take Britain from Austerity to Prosperity (2024)