[1] Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was awarded a first class degree in English.
She was appointed a patron of the British Art Music Series Trust[6] along with James MacMillan and John Wilson.
[8] In a press statement she released after she was fired, she said that "I have to tell you that the acting editor of The Times Mr Witherow has decreed that he does not want me to continue as Chief Theatre Critic.
[11][12] However, she has spoken out against the "coercive liberalism, one-note righteousness" of the National Trust following its "outing" of Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, saying that "Crassly reducing any human being to a sexuality, posthumously enlisting him or her in a phantom regiment under your orders, is almost as belittling as persecution itself.
[14] Following a column on the anti-gay policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Greek businessman Demetri Marchessini took out a quarter-page advertisement in The Daily Telegraph on 28 January 2014 to criticise her views on homosexuality and religion.
[16] Since leaving the BBC, she has been critical of several aspects of the corporation: equal pay for newsreaders,[17] sexism and ageism,[18] and "woke" comedy shows.