Simon Hattenstone (born 29 December 1962 in Salford, England) is a British journalist and writer. He is a features writer and interviewer for The Guardian.[1] He has also written or ghost-written a number of biographical books.

Life

Hattenstone grew up in a Jewish family.[2][3] He was severely ill with encephalitis for three years as a child, and became an ambassador for The Encephalitis Society.[4] He reported lifelong changes as an aftermath of his illness.[5]

He studied English at Leeds University and trained to be a teacher, then moved to London to work as a journalist. On The Guardian he wrote a sports column for three years, in which he described the vicissitudes of being a die-hard Manchester City supporter long before it was revived after being acquired by the wealthy ruling family of Abu Dhabi. He also became assistant arts editor and film editor.[6]

Works

Journalism

Hattenstone is among the few journalists to have interviewed the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy.[7] People he has interviewed include George Michael, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Debbie McGee, Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Serena Williams, Katie Price, Desmond Tutu, and Penélope Cruz.[8] His phone interview of Judi Dench was deemed an example of entertaining feature writing, yielding "an unconventional but, ultimately, satisfying profile".[9] He also writes about crime and justice, and has covered many miscarriages of justice.[10] He was highly commended in the Interviewer of the Year category in The Press Awards for 2014.[11]

Other works

Books by Hattenstone include, Out of it, about his childhood illness,[12][6] and The Best of Times, about the lives of members of England's 1966 football world cup team.[13] He has ghost-written books for the snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan[14] and for Duwayne Brooks, who was attacked with Stephen Lawrence on the night Lawrence was murdered.[15]

Film and television

Hattenstone co-wrote the television documentary series Brits Abroad.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Simon Hattenstone (profile), The Guardian, accessed 22 January 2017.
  2. ↑ "Growing pains: my journey into adulthood". the Guardian. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  3. ↑ "Dear Liz Truss: I'm woke, not business-minded and a leftwinger. Am I not your type of Jew? | Simon Hattenstone". the Guardian. 15 August 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  4. ↑ Foreword by Hattenstone, in Ava Easton (26 February 2016). Life After Encephalitis: A Narrative Approach. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-53837-0.
  5. ↑ Hattenstone, Simon (13 March 2023). "'I have a hunch I was left damaged': what would a scan reveal about my brain?". The Guardian.
  6. 1 2 Mike Horsfall, Out Of It - Simon Hattenstone (book review), Police Journal Online, vol. 79, no. 11, November 1998. The Police Association of South Australia.
  7. ↑ "Who is Banksy? Artist avoids awards-show unmasking", The Week, June 10, 2016.
  8. ↑ Simon Hattenstone, "Simon Hattenstone: the unpredictable and the unpublishable", The Guardian, 4 July 2015.
  9. ↑ Susan Pape; Sue Featherstone (2006). Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction. SAGE Publications. pp. 83–86. ISBN 978-1-84787-813-7.
  10. ↑ Simon Hattenstone, Wrongly Accused Person
  11. ↑ The Press Awards, Society of Editors, 2014.
  12. ↑ Simon Hattenstone (1999). Out of it: The Story of a Boy who Went to Bed with a Headache and Woke Up Three Years Later. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-71869-8.
  13. ↑ Simon Hattenstone (2006), The Best of Times: what became of the heroes of '66?. Guardian Newspapers Limited. ISBN 0-852-65064-7.
  14. ↑ Ronnie O'Sullivan (10 October 2013). Running: The Autobiography. Orion. ISBN 978-1-4091-1224-2.
  15. ↑ New Statesman. New Statesman, Limited. 2003.
  16. ↑ Simon Hattenstone: Biography, IMDb.
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