Lynsey Hanley was born in Birmingham in 1976 and moved to London to study in 1994. Her first book, Estates: an Intimate History, was published by Granta Books in January 2007. She has written an introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Richard Hoggart's 1957 book The Uses of Literacy, and is currently working on her second book.
She contributes commentary pieces, arts features and book reviews to The Guardian and the New Statesman, and has written for The Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, Prospect, RSA Journal, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. She has appeared on BBC2's Newsnight; BBC Radio 4's Start The Week, Analysis, and The World at One; BBC Radio 3's Night Waves and Sunday Feature; BBC Radio Five Live, BBC Radio London and Resonance FM.In November 2010 she wrote and presented Wall in the Mind, a series of three programmes about class and social mobility, for BBC Radio 4.
Her main areas of interest are social class; economic, social and spatial segregation; the British education system; public policy; built-up areas; mass media and popular culture. Through these themes she tries to examine how individuals interact with their physical, cultural and social environments. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
