Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson | |
---|---|
Born | Mark Gerard Lawson Hendon, London, England |
Occupation | Journalist, broadcaster, author |
Nationality | British |
Mark Gerard Lawson[1] is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row between 1998 and 2014.[2] He is also a Guardian columnist, and presented Mark Lawson Talks To... on BBC Four from 2006 to 2015.
Life and career
Born in
He was brought up a
Lawson became a
Lawson presented
Lawson became the main presenter of
In addition to his work in print journalism and the broadcast media, Lawson has written five books, both fiction and non-fiction. His first, Bloody Margaret (1991), is a collection of novellas on late 20th-century politics in the UK, including an eponymous satire concerning
In 2006, Lawson witnessed, and reported to the BBC, a sexual assault on a BBC staff member by Jimmy Savile, later found to have been a prolific sex offender. This was recorded in the Dame Janet Smith Review report of 2016.[7] In 2022, Lawson wrote about this encounter and his personal experience of Savile in British society.[8]
Lawson's connection with Front Row ended in March 2014 for "personal reasons" in a joint agreement with the BBC.[2] An internal report completed in January investigated claims of bullying within the BBC Radio Arts, which produces Front Row, and identified one producer and presenter as responsible.[9] The Daily Telegraph reported on 5 March that Lawson was the presenter involved and he had been accused of "browbeating junior staff" who are often young freelancers.[10] Lawson denied bullying. In his 2016 novel The Allegations,[11] a lecturer at a fictional English university faces disciplinary action and dismissal for "B&H" (bullying and harassment). Dr Tom Pimm is accused of sighing during departmental meetings, "divisive social invitations" and "visual Insubordination (sic) towards senior management". Pimm attends a hearing during which he is told that "if someone felt you were being insensitive then, to all intents and purposes, you were". In the book's afterword, Lawson writes
It is the case that during a long, generally privileged and happy career in the media, I suffered one devastating experience of institutional group-think, baffling and contradictory management, false accusation and surreally sub-legal process; and have personal knowledge of the damage to reputation, employability and health that can result from such an ordeal.
Lawson supports
Bibliography
- Bloody Margaret: Three Political Fantasies (Picador, 1991) ISBN 0-330-32386-5
- The Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places (Picador, 1993) ISBN 0-330-32384-9
- Idlewild (Picador, 1995) ISBN 0-330-34111-1
- Going Out Live (Picador, 2001) ISBN 0-330-48860-0
- Enough Is Enough: or, The Emergency Government (Picador, 2005) ISBN 0-330-43803-4
- The Deaths (Picador, 2013)
- The Allegations. London: Picador. 2016. OCLC 953332571.
References
- ^ "Mark Lawson". Debrett's - People of Today. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012.
- ^ a b Padraic Flanagan "Mark Lawson to leave BBC show 'for personal reasons'", The Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2014
- ^ a b c "Mark Lawson to leave BBC's Front Row", BBC News, 5 March 2014
- ^ Mark Lawson (7 February 2010). "They're playing our show". The Guardian.
- ^ Mark Lawson (24 March 2006). "Mark Lawson: My life as a Catholic Jew". The Guardian.
- ^ Richard Gott "The lost magic of Manchester": Book Review of "The Bedside Years: The Best Writing from The Guardian, 1951–2000", New Statesman, 28 January 2002 Archived 12 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lawson, Mark (7 August 2021). "Jimmy Savile: The People Who Knew review – devastating and damning". The Guardian.
- ^ Lawson, Mark (1 April 2022). "The day I thwarted Jimmy Savile: Mark Lawson on trying to stop Britain's worst sex offender". The Guardian.
- ^ John Plunkett "Mark Lawson to leave BBC Radio 4's Front Row amid claims of bullying", The Guardian, 5 March 2014
- ^ Padraig Flanagan "Mark Lawson quits Radio 4 'Front Row' amid bullying furore", The Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2014
- OCLC 953332571.
- ^ ""Steve Riches: Lawson makes the effort – but draws with Leeds are best!" Northampton Chronicle 25 June 2011". Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
External links
- Guardian columns by Mark Lawson
- BBC Radio 4 profile
- Mark Lawson at Curlie
- Mark Lawson interview techniques, BBC Academy