 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Sheila Dillon" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Sheila Dillon | |
|---|---|
 Dillon speaks to theBritish Library in 2020 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Food journalist |
Sheila Dillon is a Britishfood journalist who began her career writing for the New York food magazineFood Monitor. She is known as a presenter ofBBC Radio 4'sThe Food Programme, on which she has appeared for more than 20 years. Dillon has been the programme's regular presenter since 2001.
Dillon was born inHoghton,Lancashire, and grew up in the 1950s and 1960s.[1] She is from a farming background and went to aRoman Catholic primary school. Her grandfather was a head joiner on theHoghton Tower Estate. Her mother worked as a weaver and her father was a barber who came from a farming family inCounty Tyrone, Northern Ireland. She has one younger sister, Sandra, and a younger brother, Eddie.
Dillon studied English atLeicester University where she wrote for the university newspaper. At university she became involved in thewomen's movement.[citation needed]
After university, Dillon spent a year inFinland with theBritish Council. She then undertook postgraduate work in the American Midwest before getting a job in publishing at theIndiana University Press.[2] During her time atLittle Brown & Co Publishers, she was involved in a landmarksex discrimination case pertaining to issues of equal pay which helped change discriminatory employment practices in the USA.[3]
Working withDerek Cooper, Dillon was responsible for coverage ofBovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),GM and food irradiation which helped establish food as an important, newsworthy subject. She has been the presenter of Radio 4’sThe Food Programme since taking over from Derek Cooper. She hosts the annual BBC Radio Food and Farming Awards.[citation needed]
Dillon has won awards for her work, including the Glaxo Science Prize, theCaroline Walker Award and severalGlenfiddich Awards. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary degree byCity University for her work, which, the citation says, "has changed the way in which we think about food."[citation needed] She is a patron of Oxford Gastronomic.[4]
In 2010, Dillon received an "Outstanding Achievement Award" fromObserver Food Monthly magazine and was one of the "100 Leading Influential Ladies".[5]
Dillon was diagnosed withmultiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in December 2011.[6] She has become increasingly interested in the link between diet and treatment and prevention of cancer. In 2013, she spoke toJenni Murray onWoman's Hour about her experience of the disease and her views on how diet can affect recovery.[7]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)