Sir Harold Matthew Evans (born 28 June 1928) is a British-born
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and
writerA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who was editor of
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism. Since 2001, Evans has served as editor-at-large of
The Week Magazine and since 2005, he has been a contributor to
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
On June 13th 2011 Sir Harold Evans was appointed editor-at-large of the
ReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
news agency.
Childhood
Evans was born to Welsh parents in
Newton HeathNewton Heath is an urban area of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It is east north east of Manchester city centre and has a population of 9,883....
,
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, where he attended Brookdale High School
Newton HeathNewton Heath is an urban area of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It is east north east of Manchester city centre and has a population of 9,883....
with the future
Alfred, Lord Morris of ManchesterAlfred Morris, Baron Morris of Manchester, AO, QSO, PC is a British Labour Co-operative politician and disability campaigner.-Political career:Morris served as Member of Parliament for Manchester Wythenshawe from 1964 until 1997...
, who nicknamed him "Poshie" because he was the only boy in the school whose father - a railway driver - owned an automobile.
Early career
Evans began his career as a reporter for a weekly
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in
Ashton-under-LyneAshton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
,
LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
at 16 years old. After completing his national service in the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, he entered
Durham UniversityThe University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
where he graduated with honours in politics and economics and subsequently earned a
Master of ArtsA Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree for a thesis on foreign policy. He became an assistant editor of the
Manchester Evening NewsThe Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
and won a
HarknessHarkness is a Scottish surname. Its etymology is probably from the Old English personal name Hereca plus the Old English næss headland, cape...
Fellowship in 1956-57 for travel and study in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He began to gain a reputation on his return from the U.S. when he was appointed
editorEditing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the regional daily
The Northern EchoThe Northern Echo is a leading daily regional morning newspaper, serving the North East of England. The paper is based in Priestgate, Darlington. Its covers national as well as regional news. It is one of the UK's most famous provincial newspaper titles....
, where one of his
campaignsAn advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
resulted in a national programme for the detection of
cervical cancerCervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
.
The Sunday Times
During his 14-year tenure as editor of the
Sunday Times, Evans was responsible for its crusading style of investigative reporting, which brought to public attention many stories and scandals that were officially denied or ignored.
One such report was about the plight of hundreds of British
ThalidomideThalidomide was introduced as a sedative drug in the late 1950s that was typically used to cure morning sickness. In 1961, it was withdrawn due to teratogenicity and neuropathy. There is now a growing clinical interest in thalidomide, and it is introduced as an immunomodulatory agent used...
children who had never had any compensation for severe birth defects some had suffered. This turned into a campaign for the newspaper's
Insight investigative team, and Evans himself took on the drug companies responsible for the manufacture of Thalidomide, pursuing them through the English courts and eventually gaining victory in the
European Court of Human RightsThe European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
. As a result, the victims' families won compensation after more than a decade. Moreover, the British Government was compelled to change the law inhibiting the reporting of civil cases.
Other influential investigative reports included the exposure of
Kim PhilbyHarold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
as a
SovietThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
spy and the publication of the diaries of former Labour Minister
Richard CrossmanRichard Howard Stafford Crossman OBE was a British author and Labour Party politician who was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson, and was the editor of the New Statesman. A prominent socialist intellectual, he became one of the Labour Party's leading Zionists and anti-communists...
, thereby risking prosecution under the
Official Secrets ActThe Official Secrets Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Malaysia and formerly in New Zealand for legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security.-United Kingdom:*The Official Secrets...
.
When
Rupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
acquired Times Newspapers Limited in 1981, Evans was appointed editor of
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. However, he remained with the paper only a year, resigning over policy differences relating to
editorial independenceEditorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
. Evans wrote an account in a book entitled
Good Times, Bad Times (1984). On leaving
The Times, Evans became director of Goldcrest Films and Television.
Relationship with Tina Brown
In 1973, the literary agent
Pat KavanaghPatricia Olive Kavanagh was a British literary agent.Kavanagh was born in 1940 in Durban, South Africa, where her father was a journalist. Her half-sister, Julie Kavanagh, is a ballet critic. Her half-brother, Michael O'Brien is a geologist for AngloGold Ashanti in Johannesburg...
introduced Evans to
Tina BrownTina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
, a female journalist twenty-five years Evans's junior. In 1974 she was given freelance assignments with
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
in the UK, and in the US by its color magazine. When a sexual affair emerged between the married Evans and Brown, she resigned and joined the rival
The Sunday Telegraph. Evans duly divorced his wife in 1978 and on August 20, 1981 Evans and Brown were married at
Grey GardensGrey Gardens is a 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in...
, the
East HamptonThe Village of East Hampton is a village in Town of East Hampton, New York. It is located in Suffolk County, on the South Fork of eastern Long Island...
, New York, home of then
The Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
executive editor
Ben BradleeBenjamin Crowninshield Bradlee is a vice president at-large of The Washington Post. As executive editor of the Post from 1968 to 1991, he became a national figure during the presidency of Richard Nixon, when he challenged the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon Papers and...
and
Sally QuinnSally Sterling Quinn is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at The Washington Post.-Personal:...
. Evans lives in New York City with Brown and their two children, a son, George born in 1986 and a daughter, Isabel, born in 1990.
Move to America
In 1984, Evans moved to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he taught at
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. He was subsequently appointed editor-in-chief of
The Atlantic Monthly Press and became editorial director of
US News and World Report. In 1986 he was the founding editor of
Conde Nast TravelerCondé Nast Traveler is a US magazine published by Condé Nast. It has its origins in a mailing sent out by the Diners Club club beginning in 1953, listing locations that would take the card. It began taking advertising in 1955. In order to attract more advertisers, it became a full-fledged magazine,...
, dedicated to "truth in travel".
Evans was appointed president and publisher of
Random HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
trade group from 1990 to 1997 and editorial director and vice chairman of
US News and World Report, the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, and
The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
from 1997 to January 2000, when he resigned to concentrate on writing.
Evans's best-known work,
The American CenturyAmerican Century is a term used to describe the United States' dominance of much of the 20th century, in political, economic and cultural terms. The United States' influence grew throughout the 20th century, but became especially dominant after the end of World War II, when only two superpowers...
, won critical accaim when it was published in 1998. The sequel,
They Made America (2004), described the lives of some of the country's most important inventors and innovators.
FortuneFortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
identified it as one of the best books in the 75 years of that magazine's publication. It was adapted as a four-part
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
mini-series that same year and as a National Public Radio special in the USA in 2005.
Harold Evans became an American citizen in 1993, and lives in New York with his wife
Tina BrownTina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
and their two children. In 2000 he was named one of
International Press InstituteInternational Press Institute is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. Founded in October 1950, the IPI has members in over 120 countries....
's 50
Heroes of World Press Freedom. He was
knightedThe British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories...
for services to
journalismJournalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
in 2004.
On June 13th 2011, he became
Editor at LargeAn Editor-at-Large is a journalist who contributes content to a publication.Unlike an editor who works on a publication from day-to-day and is hands on, an editor-at-large will contribute content on a regular or semi-regular basis and will have less of a say on a specific field such as layout,...
at
ReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
.
Radio and Television programs
External links
- Sir Harold Evans official website
- Column archive at The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
- Column archive at the Huffington Post
- Column archive at The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Harold Evans at The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
Interviews
- Harold Evans: They Made America from Bill Thompson's Eye on Books, audio of Harold Evans interview
- The American Century' from CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
Book News, 13 November 1998, includes audio clips from Harold Evans
- Interview with Evans about The American Century from Booknotes, 7 February 1999
- The American Century transcript of Harold Evans interview from PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
NewsHourNewshour is BBC World Service's flagship international news and current affairs programme, which broadcasts twice daily: at 1400 and 2100 each edition lasting one hour. It consists of news bulletins on the hour and half hour, international interviews and in-depth reports of world news...
, 8 June 1999
- Media Giants: Harry Evans profile on Media Circus, July 2007
- Harold Evans Sees Bright Future for Print-on-Demand Newspapers from PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
MediaShift, 29 October 2009, interview includes audio clips
- Reuters Editor-at-Large Harry Evans interviews former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
on YouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, 14 June 2011