Stig Abell

Abell was born in Nottingham and educated at Loughborough Grammar School, and went on to graduate with a double first in English from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[4]

In September 2001, Abell joined the Press Complaints Commission as a complaints officer;[5] he completed other roles at the PCC including press officer, assistant director and deputy director before being appointed Director of the PCC on 19 December 2010.[6] In August 2013, Abell joined The Sun as managing editor, his role until the end of April 2016.[7]

In March 2014, Abell started co-presenting a show on LBC Radio alongside Sky News television presenter Kay Burley from 8 am to 11 am on Sundays. Burley was the main presenter while Abell reviewed the papers and added political comment.[8]

From August 2014, the show was co-presented by Abell and LBC's Petrie Hosken. In January 2015, he was given his own show from 8 am to 10 am on Sundays. From April 2016, Abell moved to the afternoon slot on Sundays of 3 pm to 6 pm.

Abell has been heavily criticised for publishing an article in 2015 by Katie Hopkins which likened migrants to cockroaches.[9][10][11]

In May 2016, Abell took up a new post as the editor of The Times Literary Supplement, succeeding Sir Peter Stothard, who had edited the newspaper for the previous 14 years.[12][13] He is a regular presenter on the BBC Radio Four series Front Row.[14]

In May 2018 Abell's first book, How Britain Really Works, was published by John Murray.[15]

In April 2020 it was announced that Abell would be joining the upcoming radio station Times Radio as a presenter. He will co-present the Monday to Thursday breakfast show, with Aasmah Mir, when the station begins later in the year.[16]

He is a regular guest commentator on the Sky (UK) News channel programme 'Press Preview', which discusses the upcoming headlines in the national printed newspapers.