Ian Jack



Profile:


Full name: Ian Jack

Area of interest: Current affairs, Politics, Social history, National identity, India, Scotland, London

Journals: The Guardian

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Ian Jack

Blog: Comment is free...

Agent/Networks:



Biography:
Education:

Career: Worked on a Scottish weekly in the 1960’s before joining The Sunday Times: reporter, editor, feature writer and foreign correspondent (mostly in India), 1970/1986; Independent on Sunday: co-founder in 1989 and editor, 1991/1995; Granta literary magazine: editor, 1995/2007; The Guardian: writer, 2007- Current position/role: Guardian writer


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles:

Other activities:BBC Radio 4 - Open Book Booklist: Books on India - Ian Jack's choices

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * "Sexing-up" those slack Saturdays The Guardian, 23rd August 2003 (Ian Jack recalls becalmed newsrooms, hyped headlines and a loss of nerve that cost him a royal scoop)
 * Ghosts in the stalls The Guardian, 26th June 2004
 * Ian Jack revisits his childhood home The Guardian, 21st January 2006

TV/Radio:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Stephen Pollard: Is Ian Jack a complete idiot? - Spectator.co, Saturday, 26th April 2008

Awards/Honours: Has won reporter, journalist and editor of the year awards

Other: 

Books & Debate:

 * Before the oil ran out OCLC 18981883, 1987

Latest work: The Granta book of reportage OCLC 62265821, 2006

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian: Ian Jack on Saturday
Column remit: Current affairs, Politics, Social history, National identity, India, Scotland, London

Section: Saturday

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Ian Jack

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format: Single topic

Average length: 1250 words



Articles:

 * riptide of modern aspiration has not reached Kolkata – but that can't last'' - India's riptide of modern aspiration has not reached Kolkata – but that can't last - 5th February 2011
 * baby boomers blame ourselves for this mess, but is it that simple?'' - We have been luckier than generations on either side, but whether that makes us morally inferior is another matter - 22nd January 2011
 * Logue and the king'' - Their friendship was more formal than in The King's Speech, but remarkable nevertheless - 15th January 2011
 * rail should not be all about Londoners'' - Britain's modern railways were invented in the north. But with the proposed new high-speed line, it seems the capital is the start and the destination - 8th January 2011
 * have less judgment in journalism and more interesting real lives'' - Obituaries are not enough. We should quiz the old and interesting before they die - 1st January 2011
 * have less judgment in journalism and more interesting real lives'' - Obituaries are not enough. We should quiz the old and interesting before they die - 1st January
 * it be a 'TV Christmas'? Probably, though not quite the way it used to be'' - The days of 28 million people all huddled at home watching the same programme are gone – but we will still be as idle as ever over the Christmas week - 18th December 2010
 * a language is one thing, but I'm saddened by Scotland going Gaelic'' - Gaelic is a 'national' language – the signs are everywhere. Shame the same cannot be said of its speakers - 12th December 2010
 * the Charles and Camilla photo, the royal mask finally slipped'' - After nearly two centuries of royal composure came a moment of fear that resonates in our world as well as theirs - 12th December 2010
 * to put a price on education devalues the curiosity of everyman'' - Prince William may have studied art history, but I'd rather talk about Rembrandt with someone who just visited the royal collection - 4th December 2010
 * English will surely have their day. But it will be a long time coming'' - 'British' still seems to offer a looser and more civic identity, not based on blood and soil - 27th November 2010
 * hired: white van man and the real apprentices'' - A work scheme for school-leavers is tackling 'the deadness at the heart of so many young men' – and having remarkable success - 20th November 2010
 * Cameron's Britain – open for business'' - The call to raise the 'human rights issue' in China is the flickering of a fading British impulse - 13th November 2010
 * we need one more war memorial'' - A Muslim woman killed in 1944 for being a British agent could subvert our view of religious identity - 6th November 2010
 * Glasgow Boys: Pioneering Painters'' - The Clyde stank, you couldn't see the sunshine, and people lived in overcrowded tenements – no wonder the Glasgow Boys preferred to paint nostalgic rural scenes than the city from which they took their name - 30th October 2010
 * British fleet with no aircraft carrier. Unthinkable!'' - Britain is about to become a different country – the loss of the Ark Royal is the least of it - 23rd October 2010
 * returns to the Potteries' heart'' - Stoke is suffering - pubs, factories, churches all empty. But there are important signs of hope - 16th October 2010
 * in glass houses target Ed Miliband'' - The Milibands' impressive property portfolio is fascinating. But what does it really tell us? - 9th October 2010
 * Delhi is still a contractors' city at heart'' - Events leading up to the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony have echoes of the past - 2nd October 2010
 * Titanic mistake we can all learn from'' - New evidence suggests the tragedy could have been prevented. Why has it only now come to light? - 25th September 2010
 * Benedict and the St Ninian revival'' - Catholicism and Scotland have a long and complex past. Did the papal visit change anything? - 18th September 2010
 * novelists: small and mean maybe, but in big demand'' - Modernist Gabriel Josipovici's criticisms of Martin Amis and Ian McEwan grab the attention but miss the point - 11th September 2010
 * good life according to Tony Blair'' - From her prosecution of poll-tax defaulters to his memoir, riches have been high on the Blair agenda - 4th September 2010
 * swimming in Cornwall - freezing in Bute'' - Why the middle-class craze for what was once called 'going for a dip' won't catch on up north - 7th August 2010
 * manufacturing fill Britain's economic vacuum?'' - From military hardware to Marmite, Britain still makes products wanted the world over. But, after years of neglect, is it too late for the sector to rescue the economy? - 24th July 2010
 * coats this hunger for the past'' - The fairy cake was a pale cousin of its wildly popular American relative – the cupcake - 17th July 2010
 * churches for their history - not religion'' - These buildings are an important part of our landscape – even if they are not used for worship - 3rd July 2010
 * search of the perfect round rolling object'' - The soccer ball brought to Kashmir in 1890 is a far cry from the hi-tech one of today – so's the game - 26th June 2010
 * God said, let there be cheap chicken'' - The middle class may loathe it, but in rundown areas Tesco can appear to be doing the Lord's work - 13th June 2010
 * together the story of Potters Bar'' - Eight years after the rail tragedy, an inquest still offers the best chance to find out what happened - 5th June 2010
 * toys, then models and now works of art'' - Now only exhibitions remind us that replica boats were once popular children's playthings - 29th May 2010
 * in the age of ridicule'' - Satire's limits will always be expanding to tackle new subjects – no matter how wicked or tragic - 22nd May 2010
 * in the north, but Not-Brown in the south'' - Not even in the south did David Cameron's virtues appear to rise above the negative of not being Gordon Brown- 8th May 2010 (Cif at the polls)
 * pursuit of Somerset royalty in the hyper-marginal hinterland'' - It's hard enough for the Tories to demonstrate social inclusivity with one highly privileged candidate. But two? - 24th April 2010
 * Brown seen as asset to Labour by Scottish voters'' - Scottish fear of the alternatives to Labour should make Labour seats safe – and enable the recapture of two recent losses - 17th April
 * election 2010: A touch of class is still an issue'' - Despite the piety of politicians who say that social background and where you went to school do not matter, the same old elite stays in power – whatever the party - 10th April 2010
 * Olympic tower is a monument to historical irony'' - Among the ArcelorMittal Orbit's unexpected twists is a revealing tale about the UK and India - 4th April 2010
 * unauthorised history of Smythson's'' - Samantha Cameron's £800 bags fit right in at a firm indirectly made rich by the sale of public assets - 27th March 2010
 * are we snooty about musicals?'' - The cost is staggering, the queues off-putting, but here it is: I was curiously moved by Lloyd Webber - 20th March 2010
 * Glasgow dreams that turned into a nightmare'' - Joblessness, drugs and now deaths – the history of Glasgow's Red Road has been defined by decline - 13th March 2010
 * the borders between fact and fiction'' - Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski's amazing stories may have been just that, a new book suggests - 6th March 2010
 * Falklands oil dispute has a long history'' - As in the buildup to the 1982 war, oil is colouring Argentinian and British views over its sovereignty - 27th February 2010
 * for £1.4m – and you won't pay a penny'' - The people of Bute have bought a chunk of their island to boost prosperity. What's not to like? - 20th February 2010
 * beautiful ghost of big government'' - On both the left and the right, voters say they feel powerless. And in many ways they are - 13th February 2010
 * goodbye to those violent intimacies'' - The arrival of the ebook will overturn existing models of economics and production - 6th February 2010
 * Burns Night – sae let the Lord be thankit'' - Here's to a rare thing: a genuine popular festival with no commercial strings attached - 23rd January 2010
 * for a 'wavering and fearful heart''' - Both Gordon Brown and Nelson Mandela name the poem Invictus as a favourite – and no wonder - 16th January 2010
 * from the worst journey in the worl'' - Compared to early polar expeditions, this icy snap is like 'eating vanilla ice with hot chocolate cream' - 9th January 2010
 * new year was all about reflection'' -The atmosphere in which Scots sing Auld Lang Syne has changed to one of defiant celebration - 2nd January 2010
 * the Beatles brushed away repression'' - The remastered Fab Four albums are more than a musical experience – they are a key to the past - 19th December 2009
 * sign of the 'sea-broken people'?'' - London is an ethnically diverse city, and climate change is global – but protests don't reflect this - 12th December 2009
 * you want your son to be a plumber?'' - Our rush to embrace higher education has started to become economically destructive - 5th December 2009
 * nation divided by the weather'' - The Atlantic's storm track has slipped south, and the rain is more persistent than ever - 28th November 2009
 * and loathing in Dagenham'' - On a walkabout in east London, Nick Griffin is a magnet for feelings of grief as well as anger - 21st November 2009
 * powered by patriotic flim-flam'' - My country's resistance to nuclear energy is easy to understand, but its alternative is baffling - 14th November 2009
 * taxman cometh'' - In the 60s, the Isle of Man recast itself as an offshore tax haven. How will the Manx 'nation' react now that status is under threat? - 7th November 2009
 * unrivalled Diana Athill'' - A bestseller at 91, she forged the modern memoir - 31st October 2009
 * murder that sparked a Delhi pogrom'' - India's progress has confounded those who predicted chaos after Indira Gandhi's death - 31st October 2009
 * Griffin's view's are far from outdated'' - In the past, discussions over population were often overshadowed by ideas of 'Us' and 'Them' - 24th October 2009
 * Modern's journey into artistic nothingness'' - Giggling crowds mistake Miroslaw Balka's new exhibition for a fairground, and who can blame them? - 17th October 2009
 * country of cold beef and ginger beer'' - David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference has echoes of Wind in the Willows - 10th October 2009
 * salt of the earth to scourge of society'' - Cruelty existed in social housing in the 1950s too, but never has it been flaunted so uninhibitedly - 3rd October 2009
 * fiver for the Elgin marbles, anyone?'' - Only in Britain are all the national museums and galleries free – it is time to show our gratitude - 26th September 2009
 * the glass really is half empty'' - In the shade of unchecked materialism, social pessimism continues to grow - 19th September 2009
 * target poppy fields and not breweries?'' - While opium farmers in Afghanistan are bombed for spreading ruin, sellers of cheap drink reap profits - 12th September
 * story looks different from the end'' - Coal made Britain strong, shaped our psyche and set us on a journey towards global warming - 5th September 2009
 * – a test of national character'' - The Lockerbie bomber's release has become a defining moment for Scotland's self-image - 29th August 2009
 * America back on track is no easy task'' - Barack Obama's plan to get the US using trains instead of cars may be beyond even his rhetorical gifts - 22nd August 2009
 * and endlessly upwards'' - Alan Milburn's report on mobility offers a snapshot of a 'closed shop society' - 25th July 2009
 * wasteful indulgence was a thing of beauty'' - Classic yachts are still loved by all who sail or see them. But where are the yards that built them? - 18th July 2009
 * subtext of the university brochure'' - For prospective students familiar with the coming-of-age narrative, staying at home simply isn't done - 11th July 2009
 * the double-glazing salesman'' - The biggest threat to conservation areas is not new development - it's PVC windows - 27th June 2009
 * strange case of the vanishing cow'' - How can such a singularly milky culture be so careless of the fate of its dairy farmers? - 20th June 2009
 * happened to Tigmoo?'' - I am a Labour party member – a useless one. This week I attended my first meeting since 1974 - 13th June 2009
 * to sell a novel using 140 characters'' - Jonathan Ross's Twitter book club promotes reading in a refreshingly wayward manner - 6th June 2009
 * last stand on Lewis and Harris'' - As a ferry service exploits a law intended to enforce equality, many feel their way of life is in danger - 23rd May 2009
 * expenses: We never found ourselves despicable'' - Fiddling expenses is wrong. But it doesn't seem that way when you're the one doing it - 16th May 2009 (see: MPs' expenses: summary)
 * Brown feels the dread hand of sympathy'' - Like that other failed leader, Anthony Eden, the PM is being regarded with 'thoughtful eyes' - 9th May 2009
 * age of the gifted amateur has returned'' - The woes of publishing make it easy to forget that Fielding, TS Eliot and others were part-timers - 2nd May 2009
 * little train company that could'' - Wrexham & Shropshire's recent victory over Virgin has restored the dignity of our local geography - 18th April 2009
 * unstoppable rise of the citizen cameraman'' - They are powerful, but one thing photographs and video can never do is give us the full picture - 11th April 2009
 * now: please form an orderly queue'' - The G20 demonstrations failed as a spectacle, but next time they may not be quite so restrained - 4th April 2009
 * suffering became a public act'' - Kathleen Ferrier and Jade Goody: two celebrities who died young. And there the similarities end - 28th March 2009
 * will protect the vital habits of democracy?'' - The demise of local papers means the official version of events may soon be the only version - 21st March 2009
 * Riding leads us up the garden path'' - David Peace's fiction should be interpreted as the product of a writer's mind, not of an age - 14th March 2009
 * and be damned'' - Her son says she is 'insane'. Her husband says she's 'devastated at what she's done'. Pundits have been quick to condemn her. So was novelist Julie Myerson right to write about her son's drug use? - 7th March 2009
 * does the voice of trust sound now?'' - There is another casualty of the banking crisis - the Scottish accent's ability to inspire confidence - 28th February 2009
 * horse isn't so huge in Ebbsfleet'' - Wallinger's sculpture has wowed the media, but is the last thing on the minds of local people - 14th February 2009
 * I wanted to live and die in India. Not now'' - Britain is depressed: a well of melancholy. But there are still plenty of reasons to be cheerful - 7th February 2009
 * say it's poverty porn - but not many'' - Here in India, films about poverty used to cause great offence. But not Slumdog Millionaire - 24th January 2009
 * era of the true art collector has returned'' - Thanks to the recession, unintelligible works will no longer be sold for unintelligent prices - 17th January 2009
 * the display cabinet killed Wedgwood'' - The pottery's problem is that they made too much - who wants it once everyone can afford it? - 10th January 2009
 * search for tourists has become witless'' - Scotland's Year of Homecoming is misconceived - those that left did so happily - 3rd January 2009
 * are all suburban now'' - In popular culture the suburbs are always somewhere we long to escape from. Not true - 20th December 2008
 * is the strongest taboo in Britain'' - Our failure to understand the financial world is the result of a great failure of journalism - 13th December 2008
 * hear it for a little literary favouritism'' - Considering the rubbish filling bookshops at this time of year, nepotism is the least of our worries - 6th December 2008
 * will never be the same again'' - Even in the worst times, European visitors to India have not felt threatened before - 29th November 2008
 * as if we've moved from a warm living room into a chilly kitchen'' - David Hare calls his new play 'pure fiction', but it feels more like a relic from the age of Blair - 15th November 2008
 * Brand v Thomas Hobbes: no wonder the BBC is floundering'' - At least the 17th-century philosopher had some editorial guidelines for 'edgy' comedy - 1st November 2008
 * circus has come to town, but Glenrothes is otherwise engaged'' - The overcrowded A92 is of more concern to local people than the future of Scotland or Labour - 25th October 2008
 * only thing we have to fear is not feeling fearful enough'' - Canary Wharf fulfilled the dream of Manhattan in Europe, and the brakes have still to be applied - 11th October 2008
 * was hailed as a great work of cinema - it made people cry'' - Terence Davies's new film rescues Liverpool from nostalgia and self-conscious parody - 4th October 2008
 * cloud puts booze, fags and fry-ups in the shade'' - A new study looks past the obvious to cast fresh light on why Scotland is so unhealthy - 27th September 2008
 * (and how to lose it)'' - Why JK Galbraith's account of the 1929 Wall Street Crash can provide a lesson for these times of no confidence - 20th September 2008
 * Lidl parmesan goes a long way for shoppers feeling the pinch'' - Discount stores are booming as the credit crunch bites, but what price a bargain? - 13th September 2008
 * new democrats are due a lesson in the economics of taste'' - With no world shortage in Damien Hirsts, the credit crunch may be about to visit Britart's pioneers - 6th September 2008
 * industrial revolution brought Titians and Renoirs to Scotland'' - The name Sutherland is infamous, but its bearers have been enlightened custodians of art - 30th August 2008
 * Public baths, tiled spittoons and how to save Britannia's waves - Once the English were the world's best swimmers, and the nation swimming-mad - 23rd August 2008
 * miracle of a Scottish wasteland given up for dead'' - Steel parts now come in boxes like Ikea furniture, but the shipyards are coming back to life - 16th August 2008
 * Fashionable paddling - or why the Browns chose Southwold - For his summer holiday the prime minister has chosen to visit England in the 1950s - 19th July 2008
 * Is it a secret river, an ornamental waterway, or a sewer? - Efforts to restore London's lost landmarks can be stylish, funny and tiresome - 12th July 2008
 * Who will come second in the fight for freedom? - David Davis's resignation has triggered not just a byelection but a scramble for publicity - 5th July 2008
 * After 1998 students didn't need to begin essays with a blank screen - Disgraced psychiatrist Raj Persaud is just a footnote in the current plagiarism wars - 28th June 2008
 * To think that someone would decree the width of a shoulder strap - Royal Ascot returns us to a Hogarthian England in which loafers and princes were in the same stew - 21st June 2008
 * When it comes to railways, the government is on the wrong track - The benefits of electric trains are clear-cut but ministers have been reluctant to commit - 14th June 2008
 * The mother of all battles being fought against guns and knives - To be an activist role model today you have to be a sufferer. There's no room for moral tourism - 7th June 2008
 * How a 1960s actor shopping in a junk shop foretold the future - The revolutionary decade also saw the birth of a brand new fashion for nostalgia - 31st May 2008
 * The Routemaster has become as iconic as the Venetian gondola - Boris Johnson faces the humbling prospect of reneging on his pledge to bring back the bus - 24th May 2008
 * Hebron is a ghost town where joggers carry automatic rifles - For the settlers, subsidies and tax breaks have become as important a motive as Deuteronomy - 17th May 2008
 * In paintings by Monet and Manet we see how men's hobbies begin - Britain invented the steam railway, but France has better pictures and more skilful engineers - 3rd May 2008
 * If Boris Johnson wins next week... it might be time to leave England and move north - 26th April 2008
 * Cheerleaders, loud music and penalties - but it's still cricket - As the county season begins in the cold at the Oval, a flashy new league is launched in India - 19th April 2008
 * Friendly barmaids, cosy fires, but hardly a drop to drink - The traditional British pub, now in decline, has been idealised since Orwell invented it - 12th april 2008
 * The land where the hippy trail reaches a historic impasse - Adventurous travellers have found many things in Goa. Innocent escape was never one of them - 15th March 2008
 * My silence about the terrorists was only partly cowardice - Twenty years on from the SAS shootings in Gibraltar, memories in Belfast are selective - 8th March 2008
 * Land of ordinary bricks, heaps of dust and ancient clay - The closure of the last brickworks in Bedfordshire has attracted little cultural attention - 1st March 2008
 * God's little acres sit smugly in the knowledge their value is soaring - 23rd February 2008
 * How roses got caught between the supermarkets and the greens - As Covent Garden market fades, the Dutch are winning the battle of the flower trade - 16th February 2008
 * The events we choose to mark tell us who we are - Football and the media have swollen together, removing all memory of another 1958 disaster - 9th February 2008
 * Oranges, lemons, almonds and the poisoned apple of Iraqi oil - The happy memories of a Baghdad Jew remind us that everything could have been so different - 2nd February 2008
 * Pity the poor estate agents, caricatures of boosterish greed - The boom is over, and rows of glass desks and steel chairs are empty visions of the recent past - 26th January 2008
 * In a few sheds near Wakefield, you can hear the rhubarb grow - 19th January 2008
 * Our chessmen were taken, but Scotland is heaving with stolen art - The fight to reclaim national treasures is fought the world over, and is rarely successful - 12th January 2008
 * If it caters only for cars, the new Forth bridge is a road to nowhere - Costs are rising a month after a replacement for the decaying 1960s bridge was announced - 5th January 2008
 * In a corner of an Indian field, Marxism goes back to its roots - By clinging to their land, Bengali farmers have defied industrialism and divided the left - 15th December 2007
 * The Scottish fisherman who didn't want to play golf - Few locals share Michael Forbes' hostility to Donald Trump's £1bn development plan - 24th November 2007
 * We behave as if there is no penalty for our luxurious consumption - Climate scientists are warned to avoid words like 'disaster' - they lead to apathy and fatalis - 17th November 2007



Links:

 * New Statesman: articles
 * OutlookIndia.com: articles
 * Wikipedia bio