John Preston (author, born 1953)

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

For other people named John Preston, see John Preston (disambiguation).

Career

John Preston 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.[1]

Preston wrote four novels between 1996 and 2007. All are set 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.[2] The Dig has been made into a feature film starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, and Lily James, released on Netflix in 2021.[3]

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." [4] Reviewing Kings of the Roundhouse in The Guardian, Harry Ritchie called it "that unusual thing – an intelligent comic novel that really is very funny".[5] 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".[6]

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. "John Preston". Cliveden Literary Festival. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  2. Preston, John (29 April 2007). "My buried history". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. 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.
  4. John O'Farrell, This Is Your Life, Random House, London, 2012, p. 333.
  5. Ritchie, Harry (23 October 2004). "Fast and loose". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  6. Mullin, Chris (9 May 2016). "A Very English Scandal review – Jeremy Thorpe's fall continues to fascinate". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
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