James Leavey is a British writer and broadcaster who has gained some notoriety as a champion of smokers’ rights. His appearance on the BBC Horizon programme ‘We love cigarettes’ attracted criticism in the press most notably from the Independent and The Times. Critics challenged his suggestion that smoking had helped writers like Beckett, Wilde and Yeats produce great literature.

Early years

The son of a German U-Boat commander Leavey grew up in south London. He landed his first job in journalism at the age of 15 as a reporter on the magazine Southern Africa based in Fleet Street. He went on to write for African World, Rhodesia & Nyasaland Today, and the Royal Commonwealth Society’s African Affairs.

Leavey later worked for BT where he both renamed and helped to launch the company’s first computer software label, Firebird. Among other things he received a joke Gold Tape award from Home Computing Weekly for Booty, the first computer game to sell 100,000 copies in the UK. In 1990 he left BT to pursue a career as a freelance writer and broadcaster.

Freelance career

As a contributor to the British weekly magazine, Punch, Leavey wrote a regular column entitled ‘Sharing an ashtray with’ consisting of interviews with celebrities on the subject of smoking.

Interviewees included: Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Trevor Baylis

Trevor Baylis

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, Sir Tom Courtney, Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin

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, John Entwistle

John Entwistle

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, Kinky Friedman

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, Sir James Galway, Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris

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, Roy Hudd

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, Christopher Lee

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, Sir Patrick Moore, Sir John Mortimer, Sir Jimmy Savile

Jimmy Savile

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, Jerry Springer

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 and Geno Washington

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.

Leavey has written for numerous British newspapers including the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express and the Sunday Express, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4, BBC Two and Channel 4, often in the capacity of unofficial spokesman for the hard pressed smoker.

He is the author of the FOREST Guide to Smoking in London which attracted press coverage both in the UK and overseas. The book includes a foreword by Auberon Waugh

Auberon Waugh

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 and a closing comment by Jeffrey Bernard

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. Leavey subsequently wrote the FOREST Guide to Smoking in Scotland: Where To Light Up.

He now lives on the Isle of Wight where he writes a regular blog on cruise holidays.