Simon Jenkins

Sir Simon Jenkins

Jenkins in 2012
Born Simon David Jenkins
(1943-06-10) 10 June 1943[1]
Birmingham, England
Alma mater St John's College, Oxford
Occupation Journalist
Spouse(s) Gayle Hunnicutt (1978–2009)[1] Hannah Kaye (2014–)
Awards Knight Bachelor
Website guardian.co.uk/profile/simonjenkins

Sir Simon David Jenkins FSA FRSL (born 10 June 1943) is an English author and newspaper columnist and editor. He served as editor of the Evening Standard from 1976 to 1978 and of The Times from 1990 to 1992.

Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 2008 to 2014. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and Evening Standard.

Early life

Jenkins is the son of theologian and United Reformed Church minister Daniel Thomas Jenkins (1914–2002).[2] He was born in Birmingham. He was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.[1]

Career

Journalism

After graduating from Oxford University, Jenkins initially worked at Country Life magazine, before joining The Times Educational Supplement. He was then features editor and columnist on the Evening Standard before editing the Insight pages of The Sunday Times.[3][4] From 1976 to 1978 he was editor of the Evening Standard, before moving to become political editor of The Economist. He edited The Times from 1990 to 1992, but since then has primarily worked as a columnist. In 1998 he received the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year award.

On 28 January 2005, he announced he was ending his 15-year association with The Times to write a book before joining The Guardian as a columnist. He retained a column at The Sunday Times and was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.[5] He gave up both on becoming chairman of the National Trust in 2008, when he also resumed an occasional column for the London Evening Standard.[6]

On 14 April 2009, The Guardian newspaper withdrew one of his articles from its website after ANC leader and current South African President Jacob Zuma sued the paper for defamation.[7]

In February 2010, Jenkins, who had been in favour of the Falklands War, argued in a Guardian article that the Falkland Islands are an example of anachronistic British colonialism and should be handed over to Argentinian control. He said that they could be leased back under the auspices of the UN. He remarked that the 2,500 or so British islanders should not have an "unqualified veto on British government policy".[8] In March 2012, he stated on Question Time that Britain should begin negotiating the handover of the Falkland Islands to the Argentine government. Only his fellow panellist Alexei Sayle agreed; the others and the audience disapproved.

In 2010 Jenkins spoke disparagingly[9] on the Radio 4 Today Programme about the Shard, a skyscraper in south London. He was described as a "professional miserabilist" in The Londonist.[10]

Jenkins has expressed varying opinions on the subject of national defence. In a piece in The Guardian in 2010 he wrote that the government should "cut [defence], all £45 billion of it... With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s that threat [from global communism] vanished." However, he wrote in the same paper in 2016 in support of NATO membership, saying: "It is a real deterrent, and its plausibility rests on the assurance of collective response."[11]

Books

Jenkins has written several books on politics, history and architecture, including England's Thousand Best Churches[12] and England's Thousand Best Houses.[4] More recently in his history of England, he argues that the British Empire "was a remarkable institution that dismantled itself in good order."[13] He wrote that England is "the most remarkable country in European history."[14]

Public appointments

Jenkins served on the boards of British Rail 1979–1990 and London Transport 1984–86. He was a member of the Millennium Commission from February 1994 to December 2000,[15] and has also sat on the Board of Trustees of the Architecture Foundation. From 1985 to 1990, he was deputy chairman of English Heritage.[4]

In July 2008, it was announced that he had been chosen as the new chairman of the National Trust; he took over the post from William Proby in November of that year. Although Jenkins had in the past been critical of some aspects of the Trust's work, he said he was "very pleased" by his appointment, and that the Trust was "one of England's great institutions".[16] As chairman of the National Trust, a post he held until November 2014, Jenkins campaigned vociferously against the building of new houses, although according to then housing minister Nick Boles he himself owned "at least two homes".[17]

Personal life and honours

Insignia of Knight Bachelor

Jenkins married the American actress Gayle Hunnicutt in 1978; the couple had one son. They separated in 2008 and have since divorced.[18] He married Hannah Kaye in 2014.[19]

Jenkins was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year honours.

Selected works

References

  1. 1 2 3 "'JENKINS, (Sir) Simon David', Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2011".(subscription required)
  2. ↑ Kaye, Elaine. "Jenkins, Daniel Thomas in OxfordDNB". Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Timms, Dominic (27 January 2005). "Times columnist Simon Jenkins to join the Guardian". The Guardian. London: MediaGuardian. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 McSmith, Andy (5 July 2008). "Sir Simon Jenkins: History Man". London: The Independent. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  5. ↑ Jenkins, Simon (9 September 2010). "Simon Jenkins @ The Huffington Post". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  6. ↑ Ponsford, Dominic (19 January 2009). "Simon Jenkins column returns to Evening Standard". Press Gazette. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  7. ↑ "Zuma sues London's Guardian". South African Mail & Guardian. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  8. ↑ Jenkins, Simon (25 February 2010). "Falklands... Britain's expensive nuisance". London: Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "A visually exciting building ... in the wrong place". BBC. 9 December 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  10. ↑ "Central Core of The Shard Tops Out". Londonist. 9 December 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  11. ↑ "War of Jenkins' ear". Private Eye. London: Pressdram Ltd. 2 September 2016.
  12. ↑ Jenkins, Simon (2003) "England's Thousand Best Churches", Manchester Memoirs; vol. 140 (2001–02), pp. 10–20 (part of a lecture he gave to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 29 October 2001)
  13. ↑ Oliver Kamm (3 September 2011). "Simon Jenkins's potted history of England". The Times.
  14. ↑ Simon Jenkins (24 September 2011). "The potent sweep of English history". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
  15. ↑ "Millennium Commissioners". Millennium Commission. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
  16. ↑ Kennedy, Maev (3 July 2008). "Writer Simon Jenkins to chair National Trust". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  17. ↑ McSmith, Andy. "And we still don't know how many homes Sir Simon has". The Independent. Archived from the original on 21 March 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  18. ↑ Eden, Richard (26 July 2008). "Sir Simon Jenkins's wife files for divorce". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  19. ↑ Shakespeare, Sebastian (17 November 2014). "National Trust chief, 71, weds his young treasure". Daily Mail. Retrieved 19 October 2016.

External links

Media offices
Preceded by
Roy Wright		 Deputy Editor of the Evening Standard
1976 		Succeeded by
Richard Bourne
Preceded by
Charles Wintour		 Editor of the Evening Standard
1976–1978 		Succeeded by
Charles Wintour
Preceded by
Charles Wilson		 Editor of The Times
1990–1992 		Succeeded by
Peter Stothard
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