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St. Francis - Litchfield - Friends of St. Francis stfrancis-litchfield.org | Re-alignment techniques, by Will Wheen, Lewes, Brighton, East... equilibrium-clinic.com | OSF Saint Francis Heart Hospital: OSF Saint Francis Heart Hospital | OSF... osfsaintfrancis.org |
Francis James Baird Wheen (born 22 January 1957) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster.
[edit] LifeBorn into an army family,[1] Wheen was educated at Copthorne Prep School and Harrow School. Running away from Harrow at 16 "to join the alternative society", he had early periods as a "dogsbody" at The Guardian and the New Statesman and attended Royal Holloway College, University of London after a period at a crammer.[1] At Harrow he was a contemporary of Mark Thatcher[2] who has been a recurring subject of his journalism.[citation needed] He was married to the writer Joan Smith between 1985 and 1993. He has been the partner of Julia Jones (formerly Thorogood) the author of a biography of crime writer Margery Allingham, since the mid-1990s. The couple have two sons.[1] [edit] WritingHe is the author of several books including a biography of Karl Marx, which won the Isaac Deutscher prize. A column for The Guardian ran for several years. He writes for Private Eye and is the magazine's deputy editor. His collected journalism – Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies won him the George Orwell Prize in 2003. He has also been a regular columnist for the London Evening Standard. [edit] Broadcasting workWheen broadcasts regularly (mainly on BBC Radio 4) and is a regular panellist on The News Quiz, in which he often referred to the fact that he resembles the former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith. He is also one of the more frequently recruited guests for Have I Got News For You. Wheen wrote a docudrama, The Lavender List, for BBC Four on the final period of Harold Wilson's premiership, concentrating on his relationship with Marcia Williams, which was first screened in March 2006. It starred Kenneth Cranham as former Prime Minister Wilson and Gina McKee as Williams. In April 2007 the BBC paid £75,000 to Williams (Baroness Falkender) in an out-of-court settlement over claims made in the programme.[3] [edit] Political viewsFrancis Wheen is a signatory to the Euston Manifesto and a close friend of Christopher Hitchens. Wheen is not an admirer of Noam Chomsky, although they share an interest in the values of the Age of Enlightenment. In late-2005 Wheen was co-author, with journalist David Aaronovitch and blogger Oliver Kamm, of a complaint to The Guardian after it published a correction and apology in respect of an interview with Chomsky by Emma Brockes. Chomsky had complained that the newspaper suggested he denied the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.[4] The writer Diana Johnstone also complained about references to her in the interview.[5] The Guardian's then readers' editor Ian Mayes found that Chomsky's position had been misrepresented, and his judgement was upheld in May 2006 by an external ombudsman, John Willis.[6] In his report for the Guardian, Willis detailed his reasons for rejecting Wheen's argument that the correction was itself wrong, although there was a suggestion that the newspaper had over-reacted in, for example, withdrawing the interview from its website. [edit] References
[edit] Partial bibliography
[edit] External links
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