Name Neal Ascherson Role Journalist | ||
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Books Stone Voices, Black Sea, The King Incorporated, The Polish August, Games with shadows Similar People Isabel Hilton, Magnus Linklater, Jeremy Isaacs, Renee Asherson | ||
Neal Ascherson
Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer.
Contents
- Neal Ascherson
- Interview of neal ascherson december 2016
- Background
- Career
- Awards and honours
- Personal life
- References
Interview of neal ascherson december 2016
Background
Ascherson was born in Edinburgh on 5 October 1932. He was awarded a scholarship to Eton. Before going to university, he did his National Service as an officer in the Royal Marines, serving from July 1951 to September 1952, and seeing combat in Malaya. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where he read history and graduated with a triple starred first degree. The historian Eric Hobsbawm was his tutor at Cambridge and described Ascherson as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it." He is a member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostles society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students.
Career
After graduating he declined offers to pursue an academic career. Instead, he chose a career in journalism, first at The Manchester Guardian and then at The Scotsman (1959–1960), The Observer (1960–1990) and The Independent on Sunday (1990–1998). He contributed scripts for the documentary series The World at War (1973–74) and the Cold War (1998). He has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
Ascherson has lectured and written extensively about Polish and Eastern Europe affairs.
In the 1999 election for the Scottish Parliament he stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the West Renfrewshire constituency but was not successful.
As of 2016 Ascherson is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He has been editor of Public Archaeology, an academic journal associated with UCL devoted to CRM and public archaeology issues and developments, since its inception in 1999.
Awards and honours
In 1991 Ascherson was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.On St Andrew's Day 2011 at their Anniversary Meeting the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland elected Ascherson an Honorary Fellow.
Personal life
Neal Ascherson's first wife was Corinna Adam; the couple first met at Cambridge University and married in 1958. They had two daughters together before separating in 1974. The couple divorced in 1982. Corinna Ascherson, also a journalist, died in March 2012. In 1984, he married his second wife, the journalist Isabel Hilton. The couple currently live in London and have two (now adult) children, Iona and Alexander. His aunt was the British actress Renée Asherson.