Patterson was born in Rome to a Swedish Lutheran mother and Scottish Presbyterian father who both regularly attended church services. After graduating with first-class honours in English Language and Literature from Durham University (Van Mildert) and then undertaking an MA at the University of East Anglia, Patterson initially worked in publishing. From 1990, she was the literary programmer at the Southbank Centre. In 1998, she ran the Poetry Society’s National Lottery-funded Poetry Places scheme, enabling poetry residencies and placements. In 2000 she was appointed Director of the Poetry Society.
After 1998, Patterson worked as a freelance journalist contributing to The Observer, The Sunday Times and magazines including Time, The Spectator and the New Statesman. She has contributed to a number of books, including The Cambridge Guide To Women’s Writing and the Forward Poetry Anthology 2001, in addition to The Huffington Post.
Patterson joined The Independent in 2003, writing on politics, society, culture, books, travel and the arts.[ She was responsible for the paper's weekly Arts interview,[4] and had periods there as deputy literary editor and assistant comment editor. She took redundhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Pattersonancy from The Independent in 2013 as a result of cuts in its editorial budget. Taken from her Wikipedia page which contains a longer biography. You can read some of her writing by clicking here