Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup is a Norwegian journalist, presenter and film critic who has worked mainly in the United Kingdom. Born in Oslo, she moved to Ireland as a child and then to London in 1977 to work in the music industry. She trained as a tape operator for the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and later worked in public relations for Phonogram Records from 1980 to 1990, coordinating publicity for Live Aid at Wembley in 1985. After leaving Phonogram she became a television presenter and film critic. She has written for several British newspapers and served as The Observer's agony aunt until 2021. On radio she presented BBC Radio 2's The Green Room and was the regular presenter of BBC Radio 4's Open Book from 2002 to 2020. Her broadcasting work includes narrating the documentary The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2008). She has also judged the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.