Barbara Gunnell is a writer and editor based in London.

From 1992-97 she was Assistant Editor of the Independent on Sunday, Comment Editor of the Observer from 2002-2006 and Associate Editor of the New Statesman from 2006 until early in 2009.

She is a past-president of the National Union of Journalists and is currently a regular contributor to the Observer and an Associate of the thinktank Demos.

She is writing a book on the East End of London where she has lived for the past 30 years.