Neal Ascherson

Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer.

Appearing on television discussion programme After Dark in 1987

Background

Ascherson was born in Edinburgh on 5 October 1932.[1] He was awarded a scholarship to Eton.[2] Before going to university, he did his National Service as an officer in the Royal Marines, serving from July 1951[3] to September 1952,[4] and seeing combat in Malaya.[2] He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where he read history.[2] The historian Eric Hobsbawm was his tutor at Cambridge and described Ascherson as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it."[1] He is a member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostles society.

Career

After graduating he declined offers to pursue an academic career.[1] Instead, he chose a career in journalism, first at The Manchester Guardian and then at The Scotsman (1959–1960), The Observer (1960–1990) and The Independent on Sunday (1990–1998).[2] He contributed scripts for the documentary series The World at War (1973–74) and the Cold War (1998). He has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.[2]

Ascherson has lectured and written extensively about Polish and Eastern Europe affairs.[5][6]

In the 1999 election for the Scottish Parliament he stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the West Renfrewshire constituency but was not successful.[7] Ascherson supported the "Yes" (pro-independence) campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.[8]

As of 2016 Ascherson is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.[9][2] He has been editor of Public Archaeology, an academic journal associated with UCL devoted to CRM and public archaeology issues and developments, since its inception in 1999.[10]

Awards and honours

In 1991 Ascherson was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.[11] On St Andrew's Day 2011 at their Anniversary Meeting the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland elected Ascherson an Honorary Fellow.

Personal life

Neal Ascherson's first wife was Corinna Adam; the couple first met at Cambridge University and married in 1958. They had two daughters together before separating in 1974. The couple divorced in 1982.[12] Corinna Ascherson, also a journalist, died in March 2012.[12][13] In 1984, he married his second wife, the journalist Isabel Hilton.[1] The couple currently live in London and have two (now adult) children, Iona and Alexander. His aunt was the British actress Renée Asherson.[14]

Bibliography
  • The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo. 1963. ISBN 1-86207-290-6.
  • The Polish August: The Self-limiting Revolution. 1981. ISBN 0-670-56305-6.
  • The Book of Lech Wałęsa. 1982. ISBN 0-671-45684-9.
  • The Spanish Civil War (Granada Television serial script, 1983)
  • The Nazi Legacy. 1984. ISBN 0-03-069303-9. with Magnus Linklater and Isabel Hilton
  • The Struggles For Poland. 1987. ISBN 0-7181-2812-5.
  • Games With Shadows. 1988. ISBN 0-09-173019-8.
  • Black Sea. 1995. ISBN 0-8090-3043-8.
  • Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland. 2002. ISBN 0-8090-8491-0.
  • Opposition to Turkey's Ilisu Dam rises again with Maggie Ronayne, published 27 November 2007, chinadialogue
  • Death of the Fronsac: A Novel. 2017. ISBN 978-1786694379.
  • "A Mess of Tiny Principalities" (review of Simon Winder, Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019, 504 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 20 (19 December 2019), pp. 66–68.

References
  1. Wroe, Nicholas (12 April 2003). "Romantic nationalist". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  2. "The SRB Interview: Neal Ascherson", Scottish Review of Books, Musselburgh, Scotland, 3 August 2014, retrieved 26 January 2017CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. "No. 39293". The London Gazette. 24 July 1951. p. 3994.
  4. "No. 39657". The London Gazette. 30 September 1952. p. 5149.
  5. "UK writer Neal Ascherson discusses NATO, EU on Prague visit". Radio Prague. 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2004.
  6. "Neal Ascherson - fascinating memories of the Soviet invasion and much more". Radio Prague. 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2004.
  7. "Vote 99: Scotland Constituencies & Regions. Renfrewshire West". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  8. Ascherson, Neal (18 July 2014). "Scottish Independence Is Inevitable". New York Times. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  9. "People: Staff: Honorary". Our Staff. UCL Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  10. Carman, John (2002). Archaeology and Heritage: An Introduction. London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-5894-7. OCLC 48140490.
  11. "Neal Ascherson books – Folio Biography". The Folio Society. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  12. "Corinna Ascherson". The Times. 29 March 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015. (subscription required)
  13. Pavan Amara "Rhyl Street flat blaze victim, Corinna Ascherson, an idealistic socialist once one half of ‘journalism’s golden couple’" Archived 8 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Camden New Journal, 15 March 2012
  14. Pendreigh, Brian (6 October 2014). "Obituary: Renée Asherson, actress". The Scotsman. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
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