Julia Hobsbawm

Julia Hobsbawm OBE (born 15 August 1964) is a British writer and public speaker.

Julia Hobsbawm OBE
Hobsbawm at the Financial Times 125th Anniversary Party, London, June 2013
Born	1964 (age 60–61) London, England
Occupation(s)	Writer and public speaker
Parent(s)	Eric Hobsbawm and Marlene Schwarz
Website	www.juliahobsbawm.com

Early life

Born in 1964 in London, England,^[1] Julia Hobsbawm is the daughter of historian Eric Hobsbawm and music teacher Marlene Schwarz, both European emigres.^[2] She grew up in Hampstead,^[3] attending Camden School for Girls.^[4]

In the early 1980s, she studied French and Italian at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster), leaving without qualifications after failing to transfer to Media Studies. She worked in publishing, and then as a researcher in television, including on Wogan,^[5][6] before moving to political fundraising for the Labour Party before the 1992 General Election.

Career

In 1993, Hobsbawm founded the public relations firm Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications with her friend Sarah Brown.^[7][8]

She has held Honorary Visiting Professorships at the University of the Arts, London, and more recently at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School), including a roles as Honorary Visiting Professor of Networking in 2012^[9] and Honorary Visiting Professor in Workplace Social Health until 2020.^[10] Since September 2022 she writes the "Working Assumptions" column for Bloomberg News' section on work, Work Shift, having formerly been an editor-at-large for wellbeing portal Thrive, and a columnist for Strategy+Business magazine.^{[citation needed]}

She began hosting The Nowhere Office podcast with Stefan Stern in March 2021.^[11]

Hobsbawm was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2015 for services to business.^[12]

She is a patron of the Facial Surgery Research Foundation and the Zoe Sarojini Trust, a charity educating girls in South Africa, and was a founding trustee in the UK of OurBrainBank.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

In 2024, Hobsbawm was one of five women who accused Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse. Hobsbawm described an encounter in 1986 at her studio flat in London, where Gaiman made “an aggressive, unwanted pass,” “jumped her,” pushing her onto a sofa and forced his tongue into her mouth. Gaiman characterized the incident as "no more than a young man misreading a situation," according to the report.^[13][14]

Books

• Working Assumptions: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generational AI - and What We Know Now (White Fox Publishing with Fully Connected, 2024)
• The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future (Basic Books UK and Public Affairs, 2022)
• The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World (Kogan Page, 2020)
• Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload (Bloomsbury, 2017)
• The See-Saw: 100 Ideas for Work-Life Balance (Atlantic Books, 2009)
• Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in the Business of PR, Journalism and Communications (Atlantic Books, 2006)