John Preston (born 1953) is an English journalist and novelist.
John Preston attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire from 1967 to 1971.[1] He worked as the Arts Editor of The Evening Standard and The Sunday Telegraph. He was The Sunday Telegraph's television critic for ten years and one of its chief feature writers.[2]
Preston wrote four novels between 1996 and 2007. All are set in England in the recent past: Ghosting in the world of radio and television in the 1950s; Ink in the dying days of Fleet Street's importance in journalism in the 1980s; Kings of the Roundhouse in strife-torn London in the 1970s; and The Dig in the 1930s. Preston wrote The Dig, a novelised account of the Sutton Hoo archaeological dig, after discovering that his aunt had been one of the key participants.[3] The Dig has been made into a feature film starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, and Lily James, released on Netflix in 2021.[4]
A Very English Scandal, Preston's non-fiction account of the Jeremy Thorpe affair of the 1970s, was adapted into a television miniseries starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw in 2018. His 2020 non-fiction book, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, won the Costa Book Award for biographies in 2021, and is being adapted for television by Working Title.[5]
The Sunday Times reviewer of Ink said, "With a rare gift for both humour and desolation, Preston is a brilliant new player in the field of serious comedy."[6] Reviewing Kings of the Roundhouse in The Guardian, Harry Ritchie called it "that unusual thing – an intelligent comic novel that really is very funny".[7] The Labour politician Chris Mullin said A Very English Scandal was "probably the most forensic, elegantly written and compelling account of one of the 20th century's great political scandals ... a real page-turner" and an "entertaining mix of tragedy and farce".[8]
Preston lives in London. He is married to journalist and bridge columnist Susanna Gross and his brother-in law is political commentator Tom Gross. He has two children.
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