John Simpson
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Template:Otherpeople John Simpson (born August 9, 1944) is a British journalist who currently holds the role of World-Affairs-Editor for BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). He is also the presenter of the current affairs programme Simpson's World and a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
Born in London, Simpson read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he edited the magazine Granta. He joined BBC Radio as a trainee sub-editor in 1966 and has worked for the corporation in various roles ever since.
He was promoted to the role of reporter in 1970. His autobiography recalls an occasion when he attempted to record a quote from Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who punched Simpson in the stomach for his impudence. He presented the Nine O'Clock News for a short period in the 1980s, became the BBC's Diplomatic Editor, and was appointed World-Affairs-Editor in 1988.
He interviewed the King of Buganda Mutesa II a few hours before his death on November 21, 1969; he was present at the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989; and the fall of Nicolae Ceauşescu in Bucharest later that year. He spent the early part of the 1991 Gulf War in Baghdad before being expelled by the authorities.
Simpson was awarded the CBE in 1991.
Simpson was one of the few journalists to remain in Belgrade during the Kosovo War of 1999. Two years later, he was one of the first journalists to enter Kabul after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
While working as an independent journalist in Northern Iraq in the 2003 Iraq war, he was injured in a friendly fire incident when an American anti-tank bomb was accidentally dropped on the American unit he was with.
Simpson has written several books, including the autobiographical trilogy:
- Strange Places, Questionable People (1998)
- A Mad World, My Masters (2000)
- News From No Man's Land (2002).