John Preston (English author)

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John Preston (born 1953) is an English journalist and novelist.

Career[]

John Preston attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire from 1967 to 1971.[1] He worked as the Arts Editor of The Evening Standard and The Sunday Telegraph. He was The Sunday Telegraph's television critic for ten years and one of its chief feature writers.[2]

Preston wrote four novels between 1996 and 2007. All are set in England in the recent past: Ghosting in the world of radio and television in the 1950s; Ink in the dying days of Fleet Street's importance in journalism in the 1980s; Kings of the Roundhouse in strife-torn London in the 1970s; and The Dig in the 1930s. Preston wrote The Dig, a novelised account of the Sutton Hoo archaeological dig, after discovering that his aunt had been one of the key participants.[3] The Dig has been made into a feature film starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, and Lily James, released on Netflix in 2021.[4]

A Very English Scandal, Preston's non-fiction account of the Jeremy Thorpe affair of the 1970s, was adapted into a television miniseries in 2018.

Critical assessments[]

The Sunday Times reviewer of Ink said, "With a rare gift for both humour and desolation, Preston is a brilliant new player in the field of serious comedy."[5] Reviewing Kings of the Roundhouse in The Guardian, Harry Ritchie called it "that unusual thing – an intelligent comic novel that really is very funny".[6] The Labour politician Chris Mullin said A Very English Scandal was "probably the most forensic, elegantly written and compelling account of one of the 20th century's great political scandals ... a real page-turner" and an "entertaining mix of tragedy and farce".[7]

Books[]

  • Touching the Moon (1991; non-fiction, about a trip to the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda)
  • Ghosting (1996; novel)
  • Ink (1999; novel)
  • Kings of the Roundhouse (2006; novel)
  • The Dig (2007; novel)
  • A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment (2016; non-fiction, on the Jeremy Thorpe affair)
  • Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell (2020; non-fiction)

References[]

  1. ^ "OMs in 2021 Bafta nominations". The Marlburian Club. 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  2. ^ "John Preston". Cliveden Literary Festival. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. ^ Preston, John (29 April 2007). "My buried history". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  4. ^ Blakemore, Erin (29 January 2021). "Why this famed Anglo-Saxon ship burial was likely the last of its kind". National Geographic. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  5. ^ John O'Farrell, This Is Your Life, Random House, London, 2012, p. 333.
  6. ^ Ritchie, Harry (23 October 2004). "Fast and loose". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  7. ^ Mullin, Chris (9 May 2016). "A Very English Scandal review – Jeremy Thorpe's fall continues to fascinate". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2018.

External links[]

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