Neal Ascherson



Profile:


Full name: Charles Neal Ascherson

Area of interest: History - nationality and nationhood: expert on Poland, Central and Eastern Europe, Scotland

Journals: The Observer, The Guardian

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Neal Ascherson

Blog:

Agent:

Networds:



Biography:
Education: Eton College; King's College, Cambridge: History

Career: Lieutenant in the Royal Marines during National Service in 42 Commando, Malaya, 1950/52; worked in Kampala for the Uganda National Congress, 1956/7; joined the Manchester Guardian: reporter and leader writer, 1956/58; The Scotsman: Commonwealth correspondent, 1959/60; The Observer: reporter, 1960/63 - European correspondent, 1963/75 - Scottish politics correspondent, 1975/79 - foreign writer, 1979/85 - columnist, 1985/90; Independent on Sunday: columnist, associate editor 1990/98 Current position/role: Observer columnist / reviewer, contributing as a freelance


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles: Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 2008-

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Guardian profile: Romantic nationalist by Nicholas Wroe, 12th April 2003
 * Interview by Ian Willoughby for Radio Prague: Neal Ascherson - fascinating memories of the Soviet invasion and much more, 2004
 * Frontline interview: How would you describe the Pope's role in the fall of communism? Would it have happened without him?

TV/Radio: IMDb

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Stephen Glover criticises Rosie Boycott over Neal Ascherson leaving the Independent on Sunday: So this is how serious the Sindie now is

Awards/Honours: Journalist of the year, 1987; James Cameron award, 1989; David Watt memorial prize, 1991; Polish Order of Merit, 1992; George Orwell award, 1993; Saltire award for literature, 1995

Scoops:

Other: Stood for election for the Scottish Liberal Democrat Party in West Renfrewshire, May 1999: came fourth of six candidates. Married to Isabel Hilton



Books & Debate:

 * The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo, 1963 (Granta Books - new ed 2001) ISBN 1862072906; The Polish August - The Self-Limiting Revolution, 1981 (Viking); The Nazi Legacy. Klaus Barbie and the International Fascist Connection, 1984 (New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston); The Struggles for Poland, 1987 (Ramdom House) ISBN 0394559975; Games With Shadows, 1988 (Radius Press ISBN 009173018X; Black Sea, 1995 (Hill and Wang) ISBN 0809015935

Latest work: Stone Voices: The search for Scotland OCLC 149110727, 2002

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Observer / The Guardian:
Column remit: Comment, book and film reviews

Section: Comment / features

Role: Commentator / reviewer

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Neal Ascherson

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity: Infrequent

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Average length:



Articles:

 * saviour of Georgia?'' - Caught in a diplomatic trap, the country's best hope of escape could be a young opposition leader - 29th September 2009
 * It's a sin, what we've done to this place - Exhibition review: The British Museum's show upturns the notion that Babylon was mankind at its worst - 16th November 2008
 * A terror campaign of love and hate - On the eve of a new film about left-wing terrorist collective The Baader-Meinhof group, Neal Ascherson - who met key members of the group in Germany at the time - reflects on the legacy of those turbulent years - 28th September 2008
 * has called our bluff over countries we can't defend'' - If the West had learnt the lessons of the past, it would now be supporting even the smallest countries' dreams of freedom - 17th August 2008
 * When hope faded in the streets of the East - Forty years ago, The Observer's Neal Ascherson reported on the brutal Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring, a time when hope briefly supplanted the tyranny of communism. Returning to the city, he finds that the remarkable events have left surprisingly little mark - 20th January 2008
 * Prague revisited - Forty years on, Neal Ascherson returns to Prague and recalls the anguish of a nation as Soviet forces moved into Czechoslovakia - 20th January 2008



External links:

 * See Open Democracy (column archives)
 * See New Statesman (column archives)
 * Wikipedia bio