Biography:
About:
Education: Lancaster University
Career: Trained as a sub-editor on Harpers; sub-edited at Radio Times for two years; returned to Harpers as chief sub-editor; moved to Tatler, stayed for four years, rising to deputy editor; joined the Daily Mail as editor of 'Femail', stayed for a year and a half before becoming editor of the Mail's Mail and Femail magazine; contributing editor to American Vogue; appointed editor of Harper's and Queen, 1989/1994; wrote a diary column for The Spectator, joined The Daily Telegraph as a columnist, 1998 -
Current position/role: Commentator
Other roles/Main role:
Other activities:
Disclosures:
Viewpoints/Insight:
Broadcast media:
Video: Recently presented the BBC's What the Papers Say
Controversy/Criticism:
Awards/Honours:
Scoops:
Other: Married to Frank Walker of the Mirror Group; mother of Octavia Walker - who currently writes on beauty and health for the Sunday Mirror
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Articles:
- We know how to look after babies - It’s not No 10’s job to lecture us on child care - 19th May 2012
- Goaded to madness by the rain-filled drought - The drought would be better named as the inability of water companies to capture what falls down in torrents from the sky - 12th May 2012
- The naked truth about porn - The Government can't stop people viewing filth online - 5th May 2012
- There’s an art to charming your father-in-law - A royal friendship is blossoming over a shared passion for all things cultural - 28th April 2012
- Will pupils really stand up for teachers? - Discipline in class is laudable – but times have changed - 21st April 2012
- Finally, I saw Hockney’s blooming hawthorn - His slug-like blossom divides the critics, but it perfectly captures this puzzling spring - 7th April 2012
- Count me out of the drought – I have a well - When the hosepipe ban comes, I for one won’t have to save the bath water - 31st March 2012
- Is it wrong to take pleasure in my knickers? - Spending 10 quid on a pair of fancy pants is good for the soul - 24th March 2012
- The good wives, standing by their bad men - There’s a special venom reserved for women like Asma Assad, who refuse to walk away - 17th March 2012
- Me learn maths? There’s no percentage in it - The world may have gone binary bonkers, but I’d rather learn how to speak Italian - 3rd March 2012
- When did giving become so taxing? - Donating to charity has become fraught with difficulties - 25th February 2012
- When the donor dilemma becomes personal - Organ transplantation can be a moral maze – but some cases make things crystal clear - 18th February 2012
- A fashion audition that wasn’t worth the weight - Karl Lagerfeld has a nerve criticising Adele, he once carried a few extra pounds himself - 11th February 2012
- The brutal cold becomes a beautiful comfort - The magic of New York under snow is a reminder of winter’s warming ways - 4th February 2012
- Thank God Diddling Dave is the retiring type - If the tax man’s going to accuse us of fraud, we don’t want to hear his silly euphemisms - 27th January 2012
- The days when bigger wasn’t always better - Women’s body types have been admired for different reasons in different eras - 14th January 2012
- The righteous anger of an unforgiving mother - Doreen Lawrence won’t play the role of victim as she continues to fight for justice for her son - 7th January 2012
- I can’t do Christmas with end-of-bin Brussels - Delia Smith’s handy checklist only made things worse in a ravaged supermarket at close to midnight - 24th December 2011
- The day I was Thatcher's fashion victim - Meryl Streep's portrayal in The Iron Lady made me weep – but the real Lady Thatcher once made me wince - 17th December 2011
- Our bateau came in just before the exams - The French teacher’s little 'treat’ was a great help – except when it came to buying buns - 10th December 2011
- Beasts and saints in the free press - Good reporters need a cool contempt for the ordinary – you’ll find all human life among them - 3rd December 2011
- Safe to give birth? I should jolly well think so - I was looking forward to hospital and ended up at home, but it shouldn’t matter either way - 26th November 2011
- Am I the last person on earth to use angelica? - Finding this Christmas cake ingredient is like mission impossible - 19th November 2011
- Why I will only wear my poppy on Sunday - We all believe in remembrance, but the early adopters drive me to distraction - 12th November 2011
- Don’t believe the horror stories about nurses - A quango might spread doom and gloom, but only patients know how they’re treated - 15th October 2011
- Life on the open road becomes a bit quicker - Raising the motorway limit to 80mph might just save me the expense of another speeding ticket - 1st October 2011
- The NHS: If only the Government listened to the geeks - Whizzy IT systems are expensive – in the National Health Service or at home - 24th September 2011
- Why gloomy Stephanie Flanders, the BBC's high priestess of economics, left me simmering in the kitchen - There was refuge to be had from our economic woes in some hard and fast seasonal cooking - 17th September 2011
- Turkey, the perfect place to escape the apocalypse - Away from England and the eurozone there exists an easily accessible mix of both East and West - 10th September 2011
- The women who took on men with nuclear missiles - Greenham Common peace camps made quite a few people feel very unpeaceful - 27th August 2011
- Why my cups no longer runneth over - After years of enduring ill-fitting bras, I finally discovered the joys of Rigby & Peller - 20th August 2011
- Should we blame the parents? I’m not so sure - Whatever way you decide to bring up your children, you have no idea if they will turn out to be rioters - 13th August 2011
- When I didn’t know owt about posh speak - My fascination with Received Pronunciation stems from a traumatic encounter with Elastoplast - 6th August 2011
- Am I a nimby, a Luddite or a party-pooper? - Like Lord Wolfson over HS2, I don’t want a music festival in my back yard - 30th July 2011
- Butterflies are cute, but caterpillars must die - I’m not going to get very far with David Attenborough's butterfly count while my vegetables are being eaten alive - 23rd July 2011
- The loves, lusts and passions of Rupert - Rebekah may be gone, but she wasn’t the only formidable woman in Murdoch’s life - 16th July 2011
- My stay in an NHS hospital cheered me up - A top-flight surgeon, clean wards and a nurse who sings Take That. There's nothing quite like the NHS - 9th July 2011
- Self-defence can be a very brutal business - Bashing a burglar in one's home might now be allowed, but it hardly seems wise - 2nd July 2011
- The 'Today’ of yesterday was great. Today, it isn’t - This programme has become almost unlistenable to because of all the shouting - 25th June 2011
- Into every summer do, a little rain must fall - Could anything be more inspiring - or typically English - than a wet croquet party - 19th June
- If I do decide to end it all, I'll do it my way - If we can live exactly as we want, why can't we die as we want too - 11th June 2011
- Care Quality Commission: long on buzzwords, short on compassion - To see what the Care Quality Commission does for its money, click on 'jobs' on its website - 4th June 2011
- Life without broadband is a dim memory - Once the internet is down, the information highway is blocked and barred - 28th May 2011
- Kate Middleton even looks lovely popping to the shops - Our future queen is a genuine style icon – let's remember that she's a person, too - 8th May 2011
- The royal wedding doesn't disappoint in any way - The Duchess displayed a remarkable stillness on a day that lived up to its promise - 30th April 2011
- Moveable feasts have always confused me - Easter comes as a big surprise when you have a mind that's as untidy as mine - 23rd April 2011
- I don’t care if I can’t touch it – I want it - Online clothes shopping has doubled in five years – I’m surprised it hasn’t quadrupled - 16th April 2011
- The answers the census bans us from giving - Tomorrow, family members will be forced to lie about how they are related to each other - 26th March 2011
- As Kate Moss knows, nothing appeals quite like an anti-social cigarette - Hiding tobacco under the counter is a come-on that no young wannabe can resist - 12th March 2011
- It looks like I'm never going to get to Libya - Ever since Reagan bombed my old school, I've been aching to go back. Too late now . . . - 5th March 2011
- What do nurses do if they don't nurse? - They used to look after us, but now they are facilitating our journey through illness - 19th February 2011
- From the last-chance saloon to the Bar-L - I’ve finally found some sympathy for the MPs who are swapping fancy threads for prison fatigues - 12th February 2011
- There’s nothing to share when all is lost - Women who choose to live with rather than marry their partners should wise up to the law - 5th February 2011
- Shopping with a smile? I'm not buying it - What works for Mary Portas does not necessarily work in a Poundshop in Preston - 22nd January 2011
- Even the popular are not safe from the sack - These days, your favourite actor from 'The Archers' is just as much at risk as anyone else - 15th January 2011
- Flu, cold, lurgy. . . whatever it is, it’s a swine - Please stop going on the radio, Andrew Lansley – you’re not making me feel any better - 8th January 2011
- I was poised for the perfect Christmas. . . -My aspirations of playing the efficient hostess have gone into cold storage - 1st January 2011
- There's little room at my inn this Christmas - I've single beds galore, but couples are going to be fighting over the doubles - 18th December 2010
- An extra hour of gloom? Not on my watch - Vicki Woods is still living on British Summer Time – and says the rest of Britain should also see the light - 27th November 2010
- A blaze of glory in England’s green fields - This autumn has been a joy to behold – almost worthy of New England at its best - 6th November 2010
- Someone's ruined my sleepy country lanes - A late-night drive had me calling down curses on Prescott’s head - 30th October 2010
- A fairytale springs into life on my doorstep - Vicki Woods is reminded of 'The Elves and the Shoemaker’ by a couple of young German journeymen - 23rd October 2010
- There's trouble brewing and no mistake - It’s sad to see a factory closing. Even sadder when it makes your morning tea - 16th October 2010
- It's tough being down to three laughs a day - Fifty-two, apparently, is the age at which we get grumpy. Do I really need to know this - 9th October 2010
- I'm exploding about climate change, actually - Vicki Woods gets hot under the collar about Richard Curtis's propaganda campaign to cut carbon emissions - 2nd October 2010
- Tony Blair seems to have amnesia over hunting - The ban he championed led to a law so complicated that the police won't enforce it - 4th September 2010
- I'm ready for a bit of in-service training - It's back to school in my house, even though the kids left long ago - 28th August 2010
- Sorry ladies, I'm not worried about wage gaps - Equal pay statistics are bogus because they don't compare like with like - 21st August 2010
- Greek justice makes a mockery of the law - The detention of a British student without trial should make us all fearful - 14th August 2010
- A weighty matter that's not for the likes of Anne Milton and Lynne Featherstone - The fat can call themselves what they like – it's nobody else's business - 31st July 2010
- Have we made Afghanistan a better place? - Everyone's ready to leave, whatever the consequences for the populace - 24th July 2010
- Fabio Capello consigns us to a fete worse than death - Thanks to England, the village fund-raiser failed to go into extra time - 3rd July 2010
- It's a grey old life without soothing nicotine - Harold Pinter was gripped by 'existential despair' when he gave up smoking. I know the feeling - 12th June 2010
- It's time the boys got back to their sheds - There’s a lot to be said for blokey places where men can work out their problems - 5th June 2010
- Diane Abbott is the only woman for the job - Good luck to her – but the rest of the sisterhood should sharpen up - 22nd May 2010
- Women, fret not, for you can do anything - In politics as in business, the best person should get the job, and sometimes that is a woman - 15th May 2010
- General Election 2010: Well, that was a waste of a sleepless night - Vicki Woods shares David Dimbleby’s pain as the hours - and cars - pass at a stultifying pace - 8th May 2010 (General Election 2010)
- The smack of political meddling - European pressure to ban smacking is an unwelcome intrusion into family life - 28th April 2010
- My plea to the Tories: no more TV debates - Will someone block the television debates next time - 24th April 2010
- General Election: This debate opens a whole new can of worms - The debate was bad enough – then came the spectacle of the viewers’ verdict - 17th April
- What would Ronnie Reagan have done? - This week’s treaty was a reminder of when the Cold War got personal for Vicki Woods - 10th April 2010
- I’m praying that David Cameron will stop the madness - Vicki Woods hopes the election will bring a government that repeals Labour’s loonier policies - 3rd April 2010
- The health Nazis should butt out of our lives - Vicki Woods is an ex-smoker, but is enraged by the tobacco-banning authoritarians - 27th March 2010
- Is there a ballot box marked F for Female? - The idea of politicians chasing the woman’s vote is unappealing - 20th March 2010
- Never forget that they were 10 years old - How can we ever decide what to do about children who kill children - 6th March 2010
- From sleeping beauties to red-eyed monsters - Today's children aren't getting enough sleep - but is that really my fault - 20th February 2010
- Our rag trade is now mainstream news - How wonderful that Alexander McQueen’s work is being so widely celebrated - 13th February 2010
- Safety first is fine, but this is plain ridiculous - Labour's plans to safeguard young people will kill the voluntary spirit - 5th February 2010
- Tearing veils off women will help no one - The planned French ban on niqabs will be an absurdity if it is actually enforced - 23rd January 2010
- The breeding's obvious for my pedigree chum - The furore over Kennel Club standards has given dog owners plenty to worry about - 16th January 2010
- Pity the poor sweater-knitters of Iceland - Is it proper of Labour to insist foreigners foot a bill incurred by British greed - 9th January 2010
- I'm a pushy parent, and proud - There's nothing monstrous about wanting your children to fulfil their potential, whatever Kirsty Young thinks - 6th January 2010
- The pubs that died after giving up smoking - Vicki Woods still hopes the ban can be amended – even though she will no longer benefit herself - 2nd January 2010
- The pain of being mistaken for a nobody - Forget the puppy rumpus. What really rattled Vera Baird was not being recognised - 19th December 2009
- Annunziata Rees-Mogg's surname isn't the problem for David Cameron - The young Tory candidate shouldn't worry about her double barrel - just the other bit - 13th December 2009
- Five Queens, but none fit to wear the crown - Not one of the actresses in Channel 4's royal docu-dramas did their subject justice - 5th December 2009
- Chilcot Iraq hearings: An inquiry with everything. . . except answers - It's all very cosy and polite at the Chilcot hearings - but where are the tough questions - 28th November 2009
- There's no better parent than a grandma - The courts are finally learning that common sense is the key to childcare - 21st November 2009
- When mums go into bat for their boys - Ma Gotti take note – the instinct to protect your grown-up children will only make things worse - 7th November 2009
- A night of flying witches and pink turbans - Vicki Woods recalls her introduction to Edinburgh at Hallowe'en and the unexpected joys of 'guising' - 31st October 2009
- The Queen will stand up to Pope Benedict - When the Pontiff visits Britain next year he will meet his match - 31st October 2009
- Our education system leaves me baffled - No one outside the Establishment can keep up with all the changes - 17th October 2009
- The best dress for her husband's success - Since we're back into blood-toil-tears-and-sweat mode right now, I thought it was quite canny of Samantha Cameron to wear that retro-Forties Marks and Sparks dress - 10th October 2009
- The pain of Paddington lingers 10 years on - A memorial stone is little comfort to the bereaved and survivors of the rail crash - 3rd October 2009
- Solved – the mystery of the vanishing mail - the amount of post we receive has been magically cut at the stroke of a pen - 26th September 2009
- Afghanistan: the lives sacrificed for an electoral fraud - Amazingly, the boy Miliband tells us we shouldn't even expect free and fair elections in Helmand - 12th September 2009
- Two weeks in Poundland isn’t a real job - It’s not the job of the telly to answer policy questions - 22nd August 2009
- Why are we in Afghanistan? It's hard to tell - The question to ask is no longer why, but for how long - 15th August 2009
- Attractive drug-smuggler? Welcome home - The Government's attitude to crime is pretty hard to second-guess - 8th August 2009
- Swine flu: No amount of swotting will allay the perils - If this pandemic kills millions worldwide, as the 1919 Spanish flu killed my grandfather, I don?t see how there?s much I can do to protect myself - 25th July 2009
- An agenda for schools that's all frameworks and no maths - School governors have too much to read - 11th July 2009
- My nephew's clinched a 2:1 - Lord Mandelson should be proud - Is my brother's son the product of Labour's sterling work over 12 relentless years on education policy - 4th July 2009
- Gordon Brown's military salute is a desperate face-saver - Gordon Brown seemed uncomfortable with the military from the day he became PM - 27th June 2009
- The inquiry into Iraq should at least be transparent - After all we've been through over expenses, we deserve better now - 20th June 2009
- After my trip to Paris, I long to be back with the free French - There were no yellow lines, no white lines, no Don't Park Here signs, no barriers at the Gare du Nord. Just a sense of freedom - 13th June 2009
- My husband's medical secrets are safer with me than on a skip - Vicki Woods wonders why her local doctor's surgery is so paranoid about giving out any information whatsoever - 6th June 2009
- If we weren't all called David Smith, life would be a lot easier - The name Jose is in decline as Hispanics become Americanised. I don's see the same thing happening here - 30th May 2009
- I didn't think I'd ever feel sisterly affection for Hazel Blears - If Brown sacks her, it will be because she told him, "YouTube if you want to," - 23rd May 2009
- What did Manchester do to deserve the ID card trial? - I've never met anyone who wants an ID card - 9th May 2009
- Everyone wants justice for Gurkhas, except the MoD - The Gurkha rebellion was the best thing to come out of Parliament since Blair's resignation speech - 2nd May 2009
- As ministers lose the plot, our school is getting one of its own - Michelle Obama's vegetable garden is an inspiration to us all - 25th April 2009
- Why would you want to pay off your mortgage? - wouldn't you be better off spending the money instead? - 18th April 2009
- I'd like my surgeon to have practised on people first - The European Working Time Directive will prevent surgeons being trained properly - 11th April 2009
- Michelle Obama up close and personal with the Queen - how lovely - It was charming, that shot of our tiny, pink-clad sovereign and the towering First Lady, their arms briefly entwined - 4th April 2009
- We believe that sex is either funny, rude or dangerous - Anyone in Britain discussing sex or pregnancy – teenage or otherwise – is doomed - 28th March 2009
- The class divide is simply thriving in education - For all Tony Blair's old boasts, there is an unacceptable chasm between what children achieve in state and private education - 21st March 2009
- Ministers have a lot to learn from school governors - You would never catch school governors hiring members of their family with public money - 14th March 2009
- Champagne days of the nineties are a distant dream - The affluence of Cool Britannia is well and truly over, and who knows what lies ahead if "quantitative easing" fails - 7th March 2009
- I loved and hated Margaret Thatcher equally. How could I not? - The BBC's Margaret brought back the Thatcher years vividly, says Vicki Woods, who'd like to watch it all over again, shrieking with delight. - 28th February 2009
- Oh, the good old days when the NHS didn't send you packing - Modern British hospitals are startlingly eager to send you home - 21st February 2009
- NHS needs doctors and nurses, not tsars - paying for dementia special advisers will deprive patients of care where they need it most - 7th February 2009
- We make the world's best hats, so why not wear them? - British women should emulate Aretha Franklin and indulge in some magnificent head-gear - 24th January 2009
- History can judge David Miliband now - Mr Miliband sounded like a dunce in his school-boy essay on the war on terror - 17th January 2009
- Made in England, not Indonesia please - The loss of Wedgwood is yet another blow to traditional British manufacturing. But some hardy souls are sticking it out - 10th January 2009
- White working-class boys are the best placed in 2009 - My nephews in the North rang with thanks for their presents (nothing like folding money for boys of drinking age) and when I wished them a happy and prosperous New Year, it was the first time I've actually meant it - 3rd January 2009
- Why dentists have stopped NHS work - The Government's dental contract has put dentists off the NHS - 13th December 2008
- Mr Balls don't know about our schools - Schools are already forbidden to interview prospective mothers and fathers, for fear of being swayed by (her) Whistles cardigan or (his) Church's shoes - 6th December 2008
- I'm helping to run the village pub - 29th November 2008
- You just can't legislate for sex - I'm enough of a feminist to resist the infantilising of all women (including the ones who choose to pursue a career displaying their bottoms) - 22nd November 2008
- Parenting courses are not experience - The near-certainty that Sharon Shoesmith will eventually be removed from her £110,000-a-year post gives me no satisfaction - 15th November 2008
- Shoot Peter Mandelson, not George Osborne, over falling Tory support - 8th November 2008
- Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, what is this passion for extended boyhood? - Jonathan Ross is 48 in a fortnight! Brand is "only" 33. Man-boys swaggering around in public are the bane of my life - 1st November 2008
- US is a sorry example for our schools - "He's two and a half," a British mother in New York told me, "His report card was a page long. You don't know whether to laugh or freak out and hire a tutor." - 18th October 2008
- Pay off the mortgage or buy shoes? - 4th October 2008
- Labour is losing its core voters fast - 27th September 2008
- Who is accountable for this? -becoming a community governor involves an awful lot of incomprehensible abbreviations - 13th September 2008
- Sarah Palin, dazzling but scary - I'm cheering for McCain's VP to break the glass ceiling, but her hawkish foreign policy leaves me cold - 6th September 2008
- When did Labour become so nasty? - The way this Government has invaded our privacy and eroded our long-cherished freedoms is sickening - 30th August 2008
- Comparing soldiers to athletes is stupid - One lays down his life for his country, the other wins medals - Mr Brown should know the difference - 23rd August 2008
- Spain dies a death in the afternoon - Bullfighting is on the verge of going the same way as hunting with hounds in this country - 16th August 2008
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