Penny Junor

Education

Born in Leatherhead, Surrey, Junor was educated at Benenden School in Kent and read History at St Andrews University, but left in her second year to get married.

Career

Junor started out on television in 1981, aged 32, presenting a programme called Collecting Now when she worked as a reporter. The following year in 1982 she presented "4 what's it worth" which was an award-winning consumer programme broadcast by Channel 4 in which she worked as an investigative reporter and presenter. This programme continued until 1989. In addition she also co-presented "The Afternoon Show" on BBC1 with singer Barbara Dickson from 1984 to 1985.

Junor is probably best remembered for being the main presenter (1988–1997) of the Travel Show Guides on BBC2 alongside Matthew Collins (Collins did all the travelling) and John Kettley (the BBC weatherman). The guides were brief and concise films enabling holidaymakers to learn about the resort that was highlighted before travelling there.

Junor has written several books on the British Royal Family; she has written biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales (1982) and Charles, Prince of Wales (1987 and 1998), and Charles and Diana: Portrait of a Marriage (1991). The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor followed in 2005. Her work on the Waleses "alienated" both of them and she reportedly considers the experience the worst of her career. She has also written and had published a book titled Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King. This biography of Prince William ends with his marriage to Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge. Junor's biography of Prince Harry, Prince Harry: Brother, Soldier, Son, was published in 2014.

Junor's other books include works on Margaret Thatcher (1983), actor Richard Burton (1986), John Major (1993)—she would later say in an interview that she found Major to be a failure as British Prime Minister—and Wonderful Tonight (2007, published with the sub-title George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me in the United States), the co-authored memoir of Pattie Boyd a former wife of two well-known musicians. Junor assisted Sir Cliff Richard in writing the number one best selling My Life, My Way (2008) which sold over 250,000 copies and Shaun Ellis with his book The Man Who Lives with Wolves (2009).

Junor has worked for the Evening Standard and a column for Private Eye lasted five years.

Family

The newspaper editor John Junor was her father and her brother Roderick was a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph and speechwriter for Mrs Thatcher. Junor married ex-restaurateur James Leith (the brother of Prue) in 1970. She has 4 children with her husband; their eldest son is the journalist Sam Leith. John Junor was the subject of Home Truths: Life Around My Father (2002), an unflattering account.