BBC
World Affairs Editor, Author and Columnist
John
Simpson is an accomplished public and keynote speaker and enthralling after dinner speaker fascinating
audiences across the world with his lively and entertaining
talks and lectures. With over 40 years experience
in international journalism he has the ability to
cover topics from highly factual and intense World
Affairs to more light-hearted and amusing tales
from his extensive travels.
John
Simpson is the BBC's World Affairs Editor, the
senior member of a team of London-based foreign
and specialist correspondents and has recently
been in Northern Iraq reporting on the recent
conflict. In a BBC career spanning more than 40
years - he joined as a trainee journalist in 1966
- John has earned a reputation as one of the World's
most experienced and authoritative journalists.
His first job with the BBC was as a trainee sub
editor in Radio News in 1966. John has reported
from more than 100 countries across the globe,
from 30 war zones and has interviewed numerous
controversial world leaders including Sadam Hussein,
Osama Bin Laden, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher,
Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gadhaffi,
Ayatollah Khomeini, Robert Mugabe and the Emperor
Bokassa.
One of John's more recent and demanding major
assignments was reporting from Afghanistan during
the fall of Kabul. John also reported from Belgrade
during the Kosovo crisis of 1999. He was one of
only a handful of journalists to remain in the
Serbian capital when the authorities expelled
those from Nato countries at the start of the
conflict. "As everyone else was pulling out
I decided I would just stay put and see what happened,"
he said. For the next 12 weeks he filed reports
every day and often round-the-clock for all BBC
services, and was the first BBC journalist in
a war zone to answer questions from Internet users
via BBC News Online.
In April 2000, he was named RTS (Royal Television
Society) Journalist of the Year for his reporting
of the conflict.
In a career which makes visiting trouble spots
a way of life, John says he rarely fears for his
safety - even when a Palestinian soldier ordered
him to kneel in the road and held a gun to his
head and, just recently, when a 'friendly fire'
anti-tank bomb was dropped and detonated a few
yards from him in Iraq, killing his translator
and showering John with shrapnel.
Other close shaves include being shelled in Afghanistan,
attacked with poisonous gas in the Gulf and dodging
the bullets in Tiananmen Square. John also had
the honor as a young reporter of being punched
by Harold Wilson for asking whether he was about
to call an election.
John was appointed World Affairs Editor in 1988
following periods as Diplomatic Editor and presenter
of the Nine O'clock News. Before that he worked
as a correspondent in South Africa, Brussels and
Dublin.
John also presents a current and political affairs
program called Simpson's World.John Simpson's World
is broadcast on BBC World and BBC News 24, and
is seen in 200 countries. Each edition has an
audience that has been estimated at 151 million
viewers. In its five years, Simpson's World has
interviewed more than a hundred people in over
forty countries, and is one of BBC World's most
popular programs.
From 1990-6 John was associate editor of 'The
Spectator'. Since 1996 he has written a foreign
affairs column for The Sunday Telegraph. His most
recent books include an autobiographical trilogy:
'Strange Places, Questionable People' (1998),
'A Mad World, My Masters' (2000), 'News From No
Man's Land' (2002), 'The Wars Against Saddam'
(2003) became a 'bestseller' and is now available
in paperback, "Days from a Different World" was
published September 2005 and his latest book -
"Not Quite World's End" - was released
in October 2007.
John received a CBE in the (1991), and is one
of only two people to have been twice named the
Royal Television Society's 'Journalist of the
Year' (1991 and 2000). Among his other awards
have been three BAFTA's, a Golden Nymph Award
for his reporting of Ayatollah Khomeini's return
to Iran (1979), a Peabody Trust Award for news
(1999), a special jury's award at the Bayeux War
Correspondents Awards (2002) and most recently
an International Emmy Award for News Coverage
for his report on the fall of Kabul for BBC's
Ten O'Clock News (2002),
GQ Magazine "Author of the Year" (2003) and in
2004 John received the award from Pan MacMillan
for the "Audio Book of the Year" for The Wars
Against Saddam (2004). In September 1999, Magdalene
College awarded John an honorary fellowship and,
in November 2005, John was installed as Chancellor
of Roehampton University.
Born on 9 August 1944, John was brought up in
London and Suffolk, and educated at St Paul's
School and Magdalene College, Cambridge where
he read English and edited the magazine Granta.
In September 1999, Magdalene College awarded John
an honorary fellowship.
For John Simpson products and information please visit:
John Simpson Books
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