Francis Wheen



Profile:


Full name: Francis James Baird Wheen

Area of interest: Freedom of speech and press freedom

Journals: The Guardian ( no column - ended 2001 )

Email:

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Blog:

Agent: PFD

Networks: Facebook



Biography:
Education: Copthorne Prep School; Harrow School; Royal Holloway College, University of London

Career: Began his writing career on Oz magazine. Has since worked for the New Statesman, The Independent, Daily Mirror, Gay News, Today, New Socialist and Tatler, was a regular columnist for the London Evening Standard and wrote the 'Wheen’s World' regular column in The Guardian (named Columnist of the Year, 1997) until 2001

Current position/role: Private Eye: deputy editor and writes for the 'Street of Shame' column, exposing the in-house scandals of stories in Britain's newspapers


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles: freelance journalist and broadcaster

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Why facts must figure: 'Journalism has been transformed in the past few years. And not always for the better, says Francis Wheen', The Guardian, 25th February 2002
 * Francis Wheen's Top 10 modern delusions, The Guardian
 * Was a signatory to the declaration of principles of the Euston Manifesto group

TV/Radio: see - broadcast work (Wikipedia) and IMDb

Controversy/Criticism: see - political views (Wikipedia)

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Books & Debate:

 * The Sixties: a fresh look at the decade of change (1982) OCLC 9384436
 * Television: a history (1985) OCLC 14412544
 * The battle for London (1985) OCLC 12424330
 * Tom Driberg: his life and indiscretions (1990) OCLC 25027061 (shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award)
 * The Vintage book of cats (1993) OCLC 59635368
 * Lord Gnome's literary companion (1994) OCLC 30971029
 * Karl Marx: a life (2000) OCLC 43109883 (shortlisted for numerous awards and won the Isaac Deutscher prize)
 * Who was Dr. Charlotte Bach? (2002) OCLC 50214475
 * Hoo-hahs and passing frenzies: collected journalism, 1991-2001 (2002) OCLC 48418140 (won the George Orwell Prize, 2003)
 * The irresistible con: the bizarre life of a fraudulent genius (2004) OCLC 59272328
 * How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world (2004) OCLC 53390688
 * Marx's Das Kapital: a biography (2007) OCLC 154699284

Forthcoming work: Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia (2009)

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian:

 * no column - ended 2001

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Articles:

 * The poet of dialectics - Karl Marx's Das Kapital is a ground-breaking work of economic analysis... it is also an unfinished literary masterpiece - 8th July 2006 (book review)
 * Why Marx is man of the moment - He had globalisation sussed 150 years ago - 17th July 2005 (Observer)



Links:

 * Wikipedia biog.