Paul Vallely CMG

About

Paul Vallely CMG

PAUL VALLELY is the author of the highly-acclaimed history Philanthropy – from Aristotle to Zuckerberg which has been called: “The definitive book on philanthropy – a deep and probing study of an increasingly powerful force in our world,” by John Gray, Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. It had its international launch at the British Library whose website carries a digitised exhibition of rare manuscripts and books from its collection featured in his book. He also wrote the international best-selling and critically applauded biography Pope Francis: the Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism.

Paul Vallely has an international reputation as a commentator on religion, society and ethical issues. As a journalist he produced award-winning reporting from 30 countries over three decades for which he was nominated for the UN Media Prize; he was commended as International Reporter of the Year for his reports for The Times in Ethiopia during the famine of 1984-5. As an activist on international development he has worked with Bob Geldof and Bono on Live8 and at Gleneagles and was co-author of Our Common Interest, the report of The Prime Minister’s Commission for Africa (Penguin). As a writer his books include The New Politics: Catholic Social Teaching for the 21st century and Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt. He co-wrote Geldof’s best-selling autobiography Is That It?

He has written on political, cultural and ethical matters in the New York Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Church Times and The Tablet. A former associate editor of the Independent he is a regular broadcaster on television and radio. He is now Visiting Professor in Public Ethics and Media at the University of Chester. He is also a Senior Honorary Fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He has chaired the development agencies Traidcraft and the Catholic Institute for International Relations and has been an adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales.  He is a member of the Independent Commission into the Experience of Victims and Long-Term Prisoners and is an Honorary Ecumenical Canon of Manchester Cathedral. He was awarded a CMG “for services to journalism and to the developing world” in the Queen’s 2006 Birthday Honours. He lives in Manchester.

Rob Reich, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, said of Paul Vallely’s latest book: “Magisterial … the best single volume on the ideas that have shaped philanthropy … stuffed with astonishing stories and illuminating interviews”.

Main image credit: Toby Madden.