Nigel H Jones
Encyclopedia
Nigel Jones is a British historian, journalist and biographer.
, Surrey
, he spent a peripatetic childhood in Surrey, Sussex
, Kent
and rural Yorkshire
, and was educated at schools in the Isle of Wight
and North Wales
. His journalistic career began on local newspapers in Hertfordshire
and the Cambridge Evening News
where he was Crown Court
correspondent. He then spent almost two years in Germany
, learning the language, studying the history, and working in factories in Karlsruhe
, Reutlingen
and Berlin
.
news agency in London, and as an editor with BBC
and Independent Radio News IRN
.
He has written a number of books with their references below.
His first book The War Walk: A Journey along the Western Front (1983) was inspired by his elderly father, Frank Jones (1890-1970), a Great War veteran. For it, he walked along the trench lines of the Western front, interviewing more than 30 veterans of the conflict. Among these was the German author and war hero Ernst Jünger
.
His stay with Jünger inspired his second book Hitler's Heralds: the story of the Freikorps 1918-1923.(1987. Reissued in 2004 as A Brief History of the birth of the Nazis).
His third book was inspired by the discovery in 1988 of an archive of letters, papers and manuscripts of the English novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962) which were bequeathed to him by Hamilton's sister-in-law Aileen Hamilton and used in his biography of Hamilton Through a Glass Darkly (1990 : reissued 2008).
In 1991 Jones moved to Vienna
, Austria
, where he joined the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and broadcast worldwide on Radio Austria International. It was at this time that his only stage play, End of the Night based on the life of French novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine
, was produced at Brighton's Pavilion Theatre in November 1991.
Returning to England in 1995, he worked as a freelance journalist for The Guardian
and Spectator
while writing his biography of the poet Rupert Brooke
, Life, Death and Myth (1999).
The same year, he settled in Lewes
, East Sussex, where he currently lives with his partner Lally Freeborn and their three children. He was deputy editor of History Today
magazine (1999-2000) and Reviews editor of BBC History Magazine (2000-2003).
His next book was a brief life of Britain's Fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley Mosley published by Haus in 2004.
His most recent publication is a history of the plots to assassinate Hitler Countdown to Valkyrie published by Frontline Books in January 2009.
He is currently working on his first novel, planned to be one of a series about an Irish spy who goes through the major wars and crises of the early 20th century.
Nigel Jones has written for most of Britain's national newspapers, including the Times and Sunday Times; the Daily and Sunday Telegraph; and the Daily Mail and Daily Express. He reviews books regularly for The Literary Review.
He initiated and appeared in the BBC film Journey to Hell (2003) about the war poet Wilfred Owen
; and a BBC film biography of Patrick Hamilton (2004). He has also presented a BBC Radio Four portrait of Hamilton Portrait in Black(2004); and a Radio Four documentary about the SS Lebensborn children's homes in Nazi Germany, Fountain of Life (2006).
Nigel Jones is a frequent contributor to the WAIS -- World Association of International Studies on-line discussion group, created by the late Professor Ronald Hilton
of Stanford University
.
Nigel Jones also conducts adult and schools tours of the Western Front, 'In the Footsteps of the war poets'.
In 1999 Nigel Jones settled in Lewes
, East Sussex, where he currently lives with his partner Lally Freeborn and their three children. Jones has been married twice. First (1982- [divorced]1985) to Christine Romeyer, by whom he has one daughter Rebecca (b.1982); and secondly to Claudia Richardson ( 1988-[divorced] 1991). He has a son, Tom, (b.1992) by Nadja Trittner; and a daughter, Milena (b.2000) by his present partner, Lally Freeborn.
Countdown to Valkyrie: the inside story of the July Plot against Hitler (Frontline Books.) 2009.
Early life
Born in WokingWoking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, he spent a peripatetic childhood in Surrey, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and rural Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, and was educated at schools in the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
and North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. His journalistic career began on local newspapers in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
and the Cambridge Evening News
Cambridge Evening News
The Cambridge News is a British daily newspaper published each weekday and on Saturdays. It is distributed from its parent company Cambridge Newspapers Ltd's Milton base which was opened in 1991 as a print works, and became the Evening News main operational hub in 1998...
where he was Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
correspondent. He then spent almost two years in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, learning the language, studying the history, and working in factories in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, Reutlingen
Reutlingen
Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Professional life
In the 1980s he worked for the Press AssociationPress Association
The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...
news agency in London, and as an editor with BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Independent Radio News IRN
Independent Radio News
Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the UK and beyond.The managing director of IRN is Tim Molloy, who succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009...
.
He has written a number of books with their references below.
His first book The War Walk: A Journey along the Western Front (1983) was inspired by his elderly father, Frank Jones (1890-1970), a Great War veteran. For it, he walked along the trench lines of the Western front, interviewing more than 30 veterans of the conflict. Among these was the German author and war hero Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...
.
His stay with Jünger inspired his second book Hitler's Heralds: the story of the Freikorps 1918-1923.(1987. Reissued in 2004 as A Brief History of the birth of the Nazis).
His third book was inspired by the discovery in 1988 of an archive of letters, papers and manuscripts of the English novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962) which were bequeathed to him by Hamilton's sister-in-law Aileen Hamilton and used in his biography of Hamilton Through a Glass Darkly (1990 : reissued 2008).
In 1991 Jones moved to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, where he joined the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and broadcast worldwide on Radio Austria International. It was at this time that his only stage play, End of the Night based on the life of French novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
, was produced at Brighton's Pavilion Theatre in November 1991.
Returning to England in 1995, he worked as a freelance journalist for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
while writing his biography of the poet Rupert Brooke
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
, Life, Death and Myth (1999).
The same year, he settled in Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
, East Sussex, where he currently lives with his partner Lally Freeborn and their three children. He was deputy editor of History Today
History Today
History Today is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it is the world's leading, and possibly oldest, history magazine. Its successful mission has always been to present serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible...
magazine (1999-2000) and Reviews editor of BBC History Magazine (2000-2003).
His next book was a brief life of Britain's Fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley Mosley published by Haus in 2004.
His most recent publication is a history of the plots to assassinate Hitler Countdown to Valkyrie published by Frontline Books in January 2009.
He is currently working on his first novel, planned to be one of a series about an Irish spy who goes through the major wars and crises of the early 20th century.
Nigel Jones has written for most of Britain's national newspapers, including the Times and Sunday Times; the Daily and Sunday Telegraph; and the Daily Mail and Daily Express. He reviews books regularly for The Literary Review.
He initiated and appeared in the BBC film Journey to Hell (2003) about the war poet Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
; and a BBC film biography of Patrick Hamilton (2004). He has also presented a BBC Radio Four portrait of Hamilton Portrait in Black(2004); and a Radio Four documentary about the SS Lebensborn children's homes in Nazi Germany, Fountain of Life (2006).
Nigel Jones is a frequent contributor to the WAIS -- World Association of International Studies on-line discussion group, created by the late Professor Ronald Hilton
Ronald Hilton
Ronald Hilton was a British-American academic, reporter and think-tank specialist, specializing in Latin America and, in particular, Fidel Castro's Cuba....
of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
.
Nigel Jones also conducts adult and schools tours of the Western Front, 'In the Footsteps of the war poets'.
In 1999 Nigel Jones settled in Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
, East Sussex, where he currently lives with his partner Lally Freeborn and their three children. Jones has been married twice. First (1982- [divorced]1985) to Christine Romeyer, by whom he has one daughter Rebecca (b.1982); and secondly to Claudia Richardson ( 1988-[divorced] 1991). He has a son, Tom, (b.1992) by Nadja Trittner; and a daughter, Milena (b.2000) by his present partner, Lally Freeborn.
Author
- The War Walk: A Journey along the Western Front (Robert Hale) 1984. Monthly Choice of the Military History Book Club. Paperback edition 1990. [Re-issued 2004 by Cassell & 2008 by Phoenix/Weidenfeld.]
- Hitler's Heralds: the Story of the Freikorps 1918-1923 (John Murray, 1987.) [Reissued in 2004 by Constable/Robinson as A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis]
- Through a Glass Darkly: the Life of Patrick Hamilton (Scribners. 1992: Abacus paperback). [Re-issued in July 2008 by Black Spring PressBlack Spring PressBlack Spring Press is an independent English publishing house, founded in 1985. The initial published works were lyric and poetry collections by musicians Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. They have also published Off the Road by Carolyn Cassady, and Nick Cave's debut novel And the Ass Saw the Angel...
.] - Rupert Brooke: Life, Death & Myth (Richard Cohen Books/Metro) Serialised in The Sunday Times. [Re-issued in paperback by BBC Books 2003].
- Mosley (Published by Haus in 2004)
Contributed to
- "Maydays: the Premiership of Lord Halifax" to Hitler Triumphant: Alternative Decisions of World War II A counter-factual history edited by Peter Tsouras (Greenhill Books) 2006.
- 1001 Days That Shaped The World (Century). 2009
Countdown to Valkyrie: the inside story of the July Plot against Hitler (Frontline Books.) 2009.
Edited
- Diary of a Dead Officer : Being the Posthumous Papers and poems of Arthur Graeme WestArthur Graeme WestArthur Graeme West was a British writer and war poet. West was born in Norfolk, educated at Blundell's School and Balliol College, Oxford and killed by a sniper in 1917.-Military service:...
(Greenhill Books). 2007 - Craven House by Patrick Hamilton (Black Spring PressBlack Spring PressBlack Spring Press is an independent English publishing house, founded in 1985. The initial published works were lyric and poetry collections by musicians Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. They have also published Off the Road by Carolyn Cassady, and Nick Cave's debut novel And the Ass Saw the Angel...
). 2008
Book reviews
- 12 March, 2009: Daily Mail "The incredible story of Britain's red baron"
- 2 January, 2009: Daily Telegraph: "It is a sad reflection of our time that Che GuevaraChe GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
is seen as a hero"