Jo Hodges

Jo Hodges (1959-2017) was a British scriptwriter, novelist, advertising creative and lecturer at London College of Communication.[1][2] Hodges wrote the 1997 comedy film The Girl with Brains in Her Feet, the first feature film directed by Robert Bangura.[3]

Life

Jo Hodges was born in 1959 in Leicester.[4]

The Girl with Brains in Her Feet, a 1997 film script which Hodges turned into a 1998 novel, told the coming-of-age story of 'Jack', a mixed-race working-class girl from Leicester with dreams of becoming a professional runner.[3]

Photographed by Robert Taylor for a 2001 book Portraits of Black Achievement,[5] she provided encouragement to young black people feeling scared of attempting writing as a career:

In the beginning I didn't dare write as I thought you had to be extremely clever and fantastically well educated to do it...I eventually had a go and decided that maybe I wasn't so stupid after all. I think a lot of black kids deliberately hold themselves back. There is no need to be embarrassed if you're talented or clever at something. Go ahead and show people what you can do.[6]

Hodges worked in advertising for DMB&B, GGK and Ogilvy & Mather.[7] In 2002 she started lecturing on advertising at the University of the Arts London. In 2007 she joined London College of Communication, going on to become course leader of the BA in Advertising there, and later Creative Practice Director for Communications and Media.[8]

She died from an ongoing illness on 25 July 2017, aged 58.[7]

Works
  • The Girl with Brains in Her Feet. London: Virago Press, 1998.

References
  1. Library of Congress Name Authority File
  2. Katie Deighton (16 August 2017). "'Staple your work to a tree' and other colourful truisms: a tribute to the late Jo Hodges". Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  3. Stephen Bourne (2001). Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television Second Edition. A&C Black. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-8264-5539-0.
  4. Alison Donnell, ed. (2002). "Hodges, Jo". Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
  5. Jacqui Macdonald, ed. (2001). Portraits of Black Achievement: composing successful careers. Lifetime Careers Ltd.
  6. "Jo Hodges". connectinghistories.org.co.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  7. Katie Deighton (16 August 2017). "'Staple your work to a tree' and other colourful truisms: a tribute to the late Jo Hodges". Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  8. Teleri Lloyd-Jones (14 August 2017). "A farewell to Jo Hodges". University of the Arts London. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
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