Francis James Baird Wheen (born 22 January 1957) is a British writer and journalist. is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar). ...

Early life

Wheen was educated at Copthorne Prep School, Harrow School and Royal Holloway College, University of London. At Harrow he was a contemporary of Mark Thatcher who has been a recurring subject of his journalism. He is a member of the 'soap' side of the Wheen family, whose family business was the long-established "Wheen & Sons", soap-makers, as was revealed in the gossip column of the Daily Mail on 26 March 2007, with humour. Copthorne Preparatory School is situated in West Sussex for students aged between 2 and 13. ... Harrow School, (originally: The Free Grammar School of John Lyon; generally: Harrow), is an independent school for boys (aged 13-18), and is located in Harrow on the Hill in the London Borough of Harrow. ... Affiliations 1994 Group University of London ACU AMBA Website http://www. ... Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is the only son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Baroness Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher. ... March 26 is the 85th day of the year (86th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

Writing

He is the author of several books including a biography of Karl Marx, which won the Isaac Deutscher prize. An award-winning column for The Guardian ran for several years. He writes for Private Eye and is the magazine's deputy editor. His collected journalism – Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies won him the George Orwell Prize in 2003. He was also a regular columnist for the London Evening Standard. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Isaac Deutscher (3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967), British journalist, historian and political activist of Polish-Jewish birth, became well-known as the biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... The Orwell Prize is an annual award given to writing which makes politics and political thought accessible. ... Headlines of the Evening Standard on the day of London bombing on July 7, 2005, in Waterloo Station The Evening Standard is a British tabloid newspaper published and sold in London and surrounding areas of southeast England. ...

Broadcasting work

Wheen broadcasts regularly (mainly on BBC Radio 4) and is a regular panellist on The News Quiz, in which he jokes fairly frequently about the fact that he rather looks like the former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith. He is also one of the most frequently recruited guests for Have I Got News For You. old Radio 4 logo BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... The News Quiz is a topical comedy quiz broadcast on British radio BBC Radio 4. ... The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the centre-right in the United Kingdom. ... Rt. ... Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show; produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been running since 1990. ...

Wheen wrote a docudrama, The Lavender List, for BBC Four on the final period of Harold Wilson's premiership, concentrating on his relationship with Marcia Williams, which was first screened in March 2006. It starred Kenneth Cranham as former Prime Minister Wilson and Gina McKee as Williams. In April 2007 the BBC paid £75,000 to Williams (Baroness Falkender) in an out-of-court settlement over claims made in the programme.^[1] The BBC did not inform Wheen about the settlement beforehand, and he was reportedly angered by the decision.^{[citation needed]} // Docudramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics: A strict focus on the facts of the event being treated, as they are known; A tendency to avoid overt commentary or authorial editorializing; The use of literary and narrative techniques to flesh out or render story-like the... The Lavender List was a docudrama broadcast on BBC Four in March 2006. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 4. ... James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was one of the most prominent British politicians of the 20th century. ... Marcia Matilda Falkender, Baroness Falkender (born March 10, 1932) is a British Labour politician, being first the private secretary for, and then the political secretary and head of political office to, Harold Wilson. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kenneth Cranham (born on December 12, 1944 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) is a film, television and stage actor who has appeared in Layer Cake, Gangster No. ... Gina McKee (born 14 April 1961) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in the TV dramas Our Friends in the North (1996) and The Lost Prince (2003) for the BBC and the ITV version of The Forsyte Saga (2002-03). ...

Political views

Francis Wheen is a signatory to the Euston Manifesto and a close friend of Christopher Hitchens. In late-2005 Wheen was co-author, with journalists David Aaronovitch and Oliver Kamm, of a complaint to The Guardian after it published a correction and apology for an interview with Noam Chomsky by Emma Brockes. ^[2] Chomsky complained that the article suggested he denied the fact of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. ^[3] The writer Diana Johnstone also complained about references to her in the interview. ^[4] A Guardian readers' editor found that this had misrepresented Chomsky's position, and his judgement was upheld in May 2006 by an external ombudsman, John Willis. ^[5] In his report for the Guardian, Willis detailed his reasons for rejecting the argument; Kamm maintains that his argument "remains unconsidered" by Willis. ^[6] The Euston Manifesto (pron. ... Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949) is a British-American author, journalist and literary critic. ... David Aaronovitch (born July 8, 1954) is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author. ... Oliver Kamm (born 1963) is a British newspaper columnist, author and blogger. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (Hebrew: אברם נועם חומסקי) (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer. ... Emma Brockes (born 1975) is a British Jewish journalist for The Guardian newspaper, working principally as a profile writer. ... Burial of 465 identified Bosniak civilians (July 11, 2007) Gravestone of a thirteen year old boy (July 11, 2007) A memorial to the victims of Srebrenica and other towns in Eastern Bosnia The Srebrenica Massacre, also known as Srebrenica Genocide,[1] was the July 1995 killing of an estimated 8... Diana Johnstone (born 1934), received a Ph. ...

Criticisms

Wheen has been dubbed "the Rottweiller of Decency" for his habit of attacking people who displease the so-called 'decent' left associated with the Euston Manifesto. He was accused of hypocrisy when in Private Eye he vehemently attacked a review by Johann Hari of the book 'What's Left' by Nick Cohen, impugning Hari's journalistic standards, without declaring that he is a close personal friend of Cohen's and thanked at length in the book under discussion. Critics charged that this is the sort of unethical behaviour that Wheen condemns so often in others. [1] [2] A letter in Private Eye later argued that the magazine, via Wheen's writings, "attacks honest journalists just because they criticise you and your mates." Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... Johann Hari (born January 21, 1979) is a British journalist and writer. ... Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. ...

References

1. ^ "BBC pays out over Wilson drama", The Guardian website, 4 April 2007.
2. ^ Kamm, Oliver. "Chomsky, The Guardian and Bosnia", Oliver Kamm's weblog, March 20, 2006
3. ^ Brockes, Emma. "The Greatest Intellectual?", The Guardian, October 31, 2005; the article has since been withdrawn from the Guardian's website, but remains available at chomsky.info.
4. ^ Johstone, Diana. "The Bosnian war was brutal, but it wasn't a Holocaust", The Guardian, November 23, 2005.
5. ^ Willis, John. "External Ombudsman Report", The Guardian, May 25, 2006
6. ^ Kamm, Oliver. "Guardian and Chomsky, concluded", Oliver Kamm's weblog, May 26, 2006.

Partial bibliography

• The Sixties (1982) ISBN 0-7126-0018-3
• Television: A History (1984) ISBN 0-7126-0929-6
• Battle for London (1985) ISBN 0-7453-0054-5
• Tom Driberg: His Life and Indiscretions (1990) ISBN 0-7011-3143-8
• The Chatto Book of Cats (Chatto Anthologies) Francis Wheen, editor, John O'Connor, illustrator (1993) ISBN 0-7011-4005-4
• Lord Gnome's Literary Companion (1994) ISBN 1-85984-945-8
• Karl Marx (1999) ISBN 1-85702-637-3
• Who Was Dr. Charlotte Bach? (2002) ISBN 1-904095-39-9
• Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism, 1991-2001 (2002) ISBN 1-903809-42-8 (mainly consisting of columns written for The Guardian)
• The Irresistible Con: The Bizarre Life of a Fraudulent Genius (2004) ISBN 1-904095-74-7
• Shooting Out the Lights (2004) ISBN 0-00-714943-3
• How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World (2004) ISBN 0-00-714096-7; in the USA and Canada: Idiot Proof: A Short History of Modern Delusions (2004) ISBN 1-58648-247-5

Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell (May 22, 1905—August 12, 1976) was a British journalist and politician who was an influential member on the left of the UK Labour party from the 1940s to the 1970s. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ...

External links

• Extract from Hoo-Hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism