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Mary Carmella Riddell (born 19 April 1952) [1] is a British journalist. She has been a newspaper columnist for The Observer . and The Daily Telegraph , and served as the latter newspaper's assistant editor.
Her parents married in 1948; Carmella Brett and Leslie Riddell. [2] Her grandfather was John George Riddell, who looked after Grimsby fish market, and died in May 1949. [3]
Riddell was born in Grimsby, at Nunsthorpe Maternity Home, and first lived at 147 Scartho Road. She attended Boston High School, a girls' grammar school. In March 1965, she took part in a production of 'Blue Murder' by Kenneth Lillington, [4] and as Arabella in Three Blind Mice by Cuthbert Taylor. [5] She represented Holland in county cross country competitions in 1970. [6] In 1970 she took part in the Lincolnshire Youth Theatre. [7] She gained English, French and German A-levels in 1970. [8]
She studied Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham. [9] She grew up in a Catholic family with sisters Sheila and Maddi and brother John. Her sister is Professor Sheila Riddell [10] [11] (born 2 December 1953), an academic at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity (CREID), who is married to Professor Ken Sorbie, Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt University since 1992.
From 2001 to 2008, she was a columnist for The Observer . She has also contributed to the Daily Mail and the New Statesman . [12] Earlier in her career she was deputy editor of the Today newspaper, and women's and assistant editor of the Daily Mirror . [9]
Riddell is a member of the advisory board of Out of Trouble, which is affiliated with the Prison Reform Trust. [13]
Her mother (Emmeline Mary) Carmella, who died in Boston, Lincolnshire in 2006 aged 86, [14] was appointed MBE in the 1988 New Year Honours for charity work in Boston for Bangladesh. In 1954 her father became chief executive of Holland County Council; her father died in January 1991, in the Pilgrim Hospital. [15]
She married John Shute, with two sons, born in the mid-1980s.
RAF Wainfleet was a Royal Air Force weapons range on The Wash on the east coast of England near Wainfleet, in the civil parish of Friskney, although the north-east part of the range was in Wainfleet St Mary. Other ranges nearby include RAF Holbeach, also on The Wash, and RAF Donna Nook. It was also known as The Wash Bombing Range. It was only a few miles south-west of Gibraltar Point.
John Leggott College is a sixth form college on West Common Lane, in Old Brumby, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England.
Cristina Patricia Odone is an Italian-British journalist, editor, and writer. She is the founder and chair of the Parenting Circle Charity. Odone is formerly the Editor of The Catholic Herald, Deputy Editor of the New Statesman. She is currently Head of the Family Policy Unit at the Centre for Social Justice.
Catherine Dorothea Bennett is a British journalist.
Stephen John Sackur is an English journalist who presented HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme formerly on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He was also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News. For fifteen years, he was a BBC foreign correspondent.
The A180 is a primary route in northern England, that runs from the M180 motorway to Cleethorpes. The road is a continuation of the M180, but built to lower specifications: it is mainly dual two-lane without hard shoulders. The road is dual carriageway for 16.87 miles (27.15 km) from the M180 to Grimsby, and is a single carriageway road for 2 miles (3.2 km) between Grimsby and Cleethorpes beach.
Sheila W. Lerwill née Alexander is a British athlete who competed mainly in the high jump and competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School is an English state secondary school with academy status located in Wragby Road in Lincoln. It was established in 1974, taking over the pupils and many of the staff of the older Lincoln Grammar School and Christ's Hospital Girls' High School, and two 20th-century secondary modern schools, St Giles's and Myle Cross.
Waltham Toll Bar Academy is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form, in New Waltham, North East Lincolnshire, England.
Caistor Yarborough Academy is a mixed 11–16 yrs secondary school based in the Lincolnshire market town of Caistor, England. The school was founded as Caistor Yarborough School on 18 October 1938, and celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2013. The school serves a large area of rural Lincolnshire, with a number of pupils travelling from outside the local area to attend the school, including pupils from Grimsby and Scunthorpe. It performs consistently well at GCSE.
The Grimsby Telegraph is a daily British regional newspaper for the town of Grimsby and the surrounding area that makes up North East Lincolnshire including the rural towns of Market Rasen and Louth. The main area for the paper's distribution is in or around Grimsby and Cleethorpes. It is published six days a week with a free sister paper being published once per week.
Martin John Vickers is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brigg and Immingham since the 2024 general election. He previously represented the Cleethorpes constituency from 2010 until its abolition in 2024.
Somercotes Academy is a mixed secondary school located in North Somercotes, near Louth in Lincolnshire, England. It draws its pupils from largely deprived rural and coastal areas within a 20-mile radius, many travelling by bus for over an hour each way to and from school.
Oasis Academy Immingham is a coeducational secondary school with academy status located in Immingham, North East Lincolnshire, England.
The St Lawrence Academy is a coeducational Church of England secondary school with academy status, in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The Academy teaches GCSEs and BTECs, and has specialisms in sports and science.
Gabrielle Seal Hinsliff is an English journalist and columnist for The Guardian.
Sheila Riddell, is an academic at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity (CREID). She has also been Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research, University of Glasgow. Her research interests include equality and social inclusion in education and adult education, with particular reference to gender, social class and disability