Following the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021, Fritt Ord confirmed its intention to sell the Farringdon building, which was closed and its resident organisations vacated by May 2021. The Free Word Centre announced its closure on 27 May 2021. Owen is on the board of the Southbank Centre and English Touring Opera. She has been a governor of Parliament Hill Field School, on the board of the New Statesman and the committee of the Royal Literary Fund. She has lived in Egypt, Lebanon and the United States. Owen is the editor of the anthology Fathers: Reflections by Daughters (Virago, 1983) and Whose Cities (with Mark Fisher), published by Penguin in 1991. Owen's memoir Single Journey Only was published in 2019. She was elected an Honorary Fell of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020. Personal life She was married to historian Roger Owen, whom she had met at Oxford, and they adopted their daughter Kate, although they split up 18 months later. Owen has four granddaughters and is also a great-grandmother. Bibliography Fathers: Reflections by Daughters, Virago Press (1983) Whose Cities (edited with Mark Fisher), Penguin Books (1991) Single Journey Only, Salt Publishing, 2019 References Living people 1937 births Alumni of Bedford College, London Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford English book editors English publishers (people) Free speech activists People educated at Putney High School