Sarah Hobson

Sarah Hobson (born 17 April 1947) is the British author of two travel books, Through Iran in Disguise and Family Web: A Story of India, as well as being editor of a book series on Religion, Science and the Environment. She has presented and produced many documentary films for British television. She was founder of and advisor to Open Channels, which focuses its funding on rural women creating change in West Africa, and has seen first-hand, for more than 30 years, the impact of agriculture and aid policies on rural communities in many parts of Africa. Now a resident of the US, she has been executive director of the New Field Foundation.

Early life Hobson was born on 17 April 1947 to John Hobson, a lawyer and member of parliament, and Beryl Marjorie Johnson, who had won the junior doubles tennis tournament at the Wimbledon Championships and was the daughter of a successful factory owner. As a child, Hobson lived in Northamptonshire. Hobson described her education as erratic in quality and quantity, being in six schools in twelve years. She eventually graduated from St. Paul's Girls' School, in London but did not go to university.

From an early age, Hobson was interested in the wider world. At 17, she stayed in a Russian Orthodox Church Convent in the West Bank, helping Palestinian orphans learn English. At the age of 19, she travelled and worked for 18 months in Kenya and Zimbabwe. When she was 20, her father died unexpectedly and she returned to England and began working for the educational publisher, Edward Arnold.

Later, she would work with several international organizations, NGOs and academic institutes, including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, the Global Fund for Women, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Together with such organizations she published several books on topics as diverse as the causes of famine, child abuse and communications for rural development. She was also the founder and trustee of Open Channels, a British nonprofit organization working with indigenous peoples in Africa to define their lands, resources, and rights.

Travel writing