Simon Jenkins

Sir Simon David Jenkins Template:Postnominals FLSW (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was 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 The Guardian.

Early life

Jenkins was born Template:Birth date, in Birmingham, England.<ref name="whoswho">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Subscription required</ref> His father, Daniel Thomas Jenkins, was a Welsh professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Minister in the Congregational and then United Reformed Church.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.<ref name="whoswho"/>

Career

Journalism

After graduating from the University of Oxford, Jenkins initially worked at Country Life magazine, before joining the Times Educational Supplement.<ref name="Guardian profile 2008">Template:Cite news</ref> He was then features editor and columnist on the Evening Standard before editing the Insight pages of The Sunday Times.<ref name="Guard1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Indy">Template:Cite news</ref> From 1976 to 1978 he was editor of the Evening Standard, before becoming political editor of The Economist from 1979 to 1986.<ref name="Cornwall Lecture">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He edited The Times from 1990 to 1992,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and since then has been a columnist for The Times and The Guardian.<ref name="Indy"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1998 he received the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year award.<ref name="Guard1"/>

In 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.<ref name="Guard1"/> He retained a column at The Sunday Times and was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He gave up both on becoming chairman of the National Trust in 2008, when he also resumed an occasional column for the Evening Standard.<ref name="PG">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Opinions

In April 2009, The Guardian withdrew one of Jenkins's articles from its website after African National Congress leader and South African president-elect Jacob Zuma sued the paper for defamation.<ref name="M&G">Template:Cite news</ref> The Guardian issued an apology,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and settled the libel case for an undisclosed sum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2010, Jenkins argued in a Guardian article that British control over the Falkland Islands was an "expensive legacy of empire" and should be handed over to the Argentinian government.<ref name="expensive nuisance">Template:Cite news</ref> He argued that they could be leased back under the supervision of the United Nations and that the 2,500 or so Falkland Islanders should not have "an unqualified veto on British government policy".<ref name="expensive nuisance"/>

In a piece in The Guardian in June 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 [of global communism] vanished."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2016 he wrote in The Guardian in support of NATO membership, saying: "It is a real deterrent, and its plausibility rests on the assurance of collective response".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Jenkins claims to have voted for the UK to remain within the European Union in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, arguing in The Guardian that leaving would provide Germany with dominance over the remainder of the union: "It would leave Germany effectively alone at the head of Europe, alternately hesitant and bullying".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Soon after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, Jenkins wrote that his aides were "young, sneakered, tieless image-makers, and fiercely loyal to him." They were "special advisers, thinktanks and lobby groups isolated from the world outside."<ref name=guardian-20221107>Template:Cite news</ref>

Jenkins has consistently argued against Western military intervention in and support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Before the outbreak of the Russian invasion in January 2022, amid heightened tensions, Jenkins wrote a pair of columns arguing that the United Kingdom should stay out of the "border dispute", one he argues is a direct result of 'NATO expansionism'.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2023, he wrote a column discouraging the supplying of jets as military aid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In early 2024, he wrote that NATO was growing reckless in the conflict, as the war reached a "predictable stalemate".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Jenkins has been criticized for his opinions on Ukraine by many journalists and commentators, examples including Mark Laity<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Oz Katerji.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In May 2024, following the local elections, he wrote calling metro mayors a "farce of local democracy" advocating their abolition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Books

Jenkins has written several books on the politics, history and architecture of England, including England's Thousand Best Churches<ref>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)</ref> and England's Thousand Best Houses.<ref name="Indy"/> In his 2011 book A Short History of England, he argued that the British Empire "was a remarkable institution that dismantled itself in good order".<ref name="Times 03.09.2011">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2022, Jenkins's book, The Celts: A Sceptical History, stoked some controversy on account of his incredulous view of the Celts as a distinct cultural entity. The release of the work was met with a number of hostile reviews from specialists in Celtic studies, with these critics of the book alleging factual errors in the work as well as of the misrepresentation of sources.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Public appointments

Jenkins served on the boards of British Rail 1979–1990<ref name="Cornwall Lecture"/> and London Transport 1984–1986.<ref name="Cornwall Lecture"/> He was a member of the Millennium Commission from February 1994 to December 2000,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and has also sat on the board of trustees of The Architecture Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 1985 to 1990, he was deputy chairman of English Heritage.<ref name="Indy"/>

In July 2008, it was announced that he had been chosen as the new chairman of the National Trust; he took over the three-year post from William Proby in November of that year.<ref name="Guard2">Template:Cite news</ref> He remained in the post until November 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life and honours

File:Knights Bachelor Insignia.png

Insignia of Knight Bachelor

Jenkins married the American actress Gayle Hunnicutt in 1978;<ref name="divorce"/> the couple had one son.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They separated in 2008<ref name="divorce">Template:Cite news</ref> and divorced in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He married Hannah Kaye, events producer at Intelligence Squared, in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Jenkins was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year Honours.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In 2022, Jenkins was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Selected works

• Simon Jenkins (1969) Education and Labour's Axe, Bow Publications, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1971) Here to Live: Study of Race Relations in an English Town, Runnymede Trust, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1975) Landlords to London: Story of a Capital and Its Growth, Constable, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1979) Newspapers: The Power and the Money, Faber, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1981) Newspapers Through the Looking-glass, Manchester Statistical Society, Template:ISBN
• Sir Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins (1984) Battle for the Falklands, M Joseph, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins and Anne Sloman (1985) With Respect, Ambassador: Enquiry into the Foreign Office, BBC, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1986) The Market for Glory: Fleet Street Ownership in the Twentieth Century, Faber and Faber, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins and Robert Ilson (1992) "The Times" English Style and Usage Guide, Times Books, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1993) The Selling of Mary Davies and Other Writings, John Murray, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1994) Against the Grain, John Murray, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1995) Accountable to None: Tory Nationalization of Britain, Hamish Hamilton, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (1999) England's Thousand Best Churches, Allen Lane, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2003) England's Thousand Best Houses, Allen Lane, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2006) Thatcher & Sons – A Revolution in Three Acts, Penguin, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2008) Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles, Allen Lane, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2011) A Short History of England, Profile Books, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2013) England's Hundred Best Views, Profile Books, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2016), England's Cathedrals, Little Brown, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2017) Britain's Hundred Best Railway Stations, Penguin Books, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2018) A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin, Penguin Books, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2022) Cathedrals: Masterpieces of Architecture, Feats of Engineering, Icons of Faith, Rizzoli, Template:ISBN
• Simon Jenkins (2022) The Celts: A Sceptical History, Profile Books, Template:ISBN

External links

• Simon Jenkins columns at The Guardian
• Simon Jenkins columns at The Huffington Post
• Simon Jenkins columns Template:Webarchive at the London Evening Standard
• Simon Jenkins columns at The Spectator
• Template:Journalisted
• Debrett's People of Today