Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title The Times for a year from 1981, before being forced out of the latter post by Rupert Murdoch. While at The Sunday Times, he led the newspaper's campaign to seek compensation for mothers who had taken the morning sickness drug thalidomide, which led to their children having severely deformed limbs.

In 1984, he and his wife Tina Brown moved to the United States where he became an American citizen, retaining dual nationality. He held positions in journalism with U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Daily News. In 1986, he founded Condé Nast Traveller. He wrote books on history and journalism, such as The American Century (1998). In 2000, he retired from positions in journalism to spend more time on his writing. From 2001, he served as editor-at-large of The Week magazine and, from 2005, he was a contributor to The Guardian and BBC Radio 4. Evans was invested as a Knight Bachelor in 2004, for services to journalism. On 13 June 2011, Evans was appointed editor-at-large of the Reuters news agency. From 2013 until 2019, he served as chairman of the European Press Prize jury panel.

Early life and education

Evans, the eldest of four sons, was born at 39 Renshaw Street, Patricroft, Eccles, to Welsh parents, Frederick and Mary Evans (née Haselum), whom he described in his 2009 memoir as "the self-consciously respectable working class". His father was an engine driver, while his mother ran a shop in their front room to enable the family to buy a car. He failed the eleven-plus, needed to gain entry to grammar schools, and attended St Mary's Central School in Manchester and a business school for a year to learn shorthand, a requirement to become a journalist.

Career

Early career

Evans began his career as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, at 16. During his national service in the Royal Air Force (1946–1949), After studying economics and politics, he graduated in 1952. While at the Darlington title, Evans successfully campaigned for cervical smear tests to be remedied so that he could be more available for journalistic work, and he campaigned tirelessly to pardon Timothy Evans, wrongly convicted and hanged for murders in Notting Hill, London. He recommended Evans to the board as the next editor of The Sunday Times. Early on during his period as editor came the title's exposure of Kim Philby in <!-- 1967 -->that year as a member of the Cambridge Spy ring who had been involved in espionage on behalf of Russia from 1933. Previously it had been claimed that Philby was a low-level diplomat at the time he fled to Moscow in 1963, whereas in actuality, he had been in charge of anti-Soviet intelligence and the chief officer responsible for maintaining contacts with the CIA. Despite this, he went ahead with publication believing the D-notice had been issued to inoculate the government against bad publicity, rather than to maintain the country's security. Evans took on the drug companies responsible for the manufacture of thalidomide, pursuing them through the English courts and eventually gaining victory in the European Court of Human Rights in 1979. The British government was compelled to change the law on contempt of court which had inhibited the reporting of civil cases. While it was legal for the newspaper to campaign, it was not possible for the journalists to report its factual basis. After the ruling in the European Court, the British media was now able to report such cases without restraint.

Murdoch takeover

When Rupert Murdoch acquired Times Newspapers Limited in 1981, he appointed Evans as editor of The Times. He remained with the paper only a year, during which time The Times was critical of Margaret Thatcher. Over 50 journalists resigned in the first six months of Murdoch's takeover, a number of them known to dislike Evans. In March 1982, a group of Times journalists called for Evans to resign, despite the paper's increase in circulation, claiming that he had overseen an "erosion of editorial standards". Evans resigned shortly afterwards, citing policy differences with Murdoch relating to editorial independence. Evans included an account of the episode in his book Good Times, Bad Times (1984). In the introduction to the 1994 edition, Evans wrote of Murdoch: "When I come across him socially in New York I find I am without any residual emotional hostility ... I have to remind myself ... that Lucifer is the most arresting character in Milton's Paradise Lost."

On leaving The Times, Evans became director of Goldcrest Films and Television. He acquired rights for $40,000 to the memoir, Dreams from My Father, by <!-- WaPo is wrong, not a senator, state or federal, in 1995. -->Barack Obama, then at the start of his political career. His work The American Century was published in 1998. The sequel, They Made America (2004), described the lives of some of the country's most important inventors and innovators. Fortune characterised it as one of the best books in the 75 years of that magazine's publication. The book was adapted as a four-part television mini-series that same year and as a National Public Radio special in the US in 2005.

Evans became a naturalised United States citizen in 1993. On 13 June 2011, he became editor-at-large at Reuters.

Personal life and death

In 1953, Evans married fellow Durham graduate Enid Parker, with whom he had a son and two daughters; the marriage was dissolved in 1978. In 1973, Evans met Tina Brown, a journalist 25 years his junior. In 1974, she was given freelance assignments with The Sunday Times in the UK, and in the U.S. by its Colour magazine. When a sexual affair emerged between the married Evans and Brown, she resigned and joined the rival The Sunday Telegraph. On 20 August 1981, Evans and Brown married at Grey Gardens, in East Hampton, New York, the home of Ben Bradlee, then The Washington Post executive editor, and Sally Quinn.

Factual drama

On 5 May 2026, the BBC announced that it had commissioned a six-part factual drama entitled Dragon Slayers exploring Evans's work. Written by Peter Bowker and featuring Matthew Rhys as Evans, it will be set in the 1970s and comprise one 90-minute episode plus five 60-minute instalments. The series, to be directed by Al Mackay, will be shown on BBC One and be available on BBC iPlayer on dates yet to be confirmed.

Honours

  • 1980: Received the Hood Medal of the Royal Photographic Society for photography in public service
  • 2000: Named one of International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past fifty years
  • 2004: Appointed Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for services to journalism
  • 2015: Recipient of Kraszna-Krausz Foundation's Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Award

Bibliography

  • Editing and Design: A Five-Volume Manual of English, Typography and Layout (1972)
  • Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers (1972)
  • Newsman's English (1972)
  • Newspaper Design (1973)
  • Editing and Design (1974)
  • Handling Newspaper Text (1974)
  • News Headlines (1974)
  • Downing Street Diary: The Macmillan Years 1957-1963 (1981)
  • Front Page History: Events of Our Century That Shook the World (1984)
  • Good Times, Bad Times (1983) London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
  • Editing and Design: Book 2: Handling Newspaper Text (1986)
  • Assignments: The Press Photographers' Association Yearbook (Assignments) (1988) by Harold Evans (commentary), Anna Tait (editor)
  • Makers of Photographic History (1990)
  • Eyewitness 2: 3 Decades Through World Press Photos (1992)
  • Pictures on a Page: Photo-Journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing (1997)
  • The American Century (1998)
  • War of Words: Memoirs of a South African Journalist (2000) by Benjamin Pogrund, Harold Evans
  • Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures (2001) by Gail Buckland, Harold Evans
  • The Best American Magazine Writing 2001 (2001) Harold Evans (editor)
  • The BBC Reports: On America, Its Allies and Enemies, and the Counterattack on Terrorism (2002)
  • Best American Magazine Writing 2002 (2002)
  • War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict from the Crimea to Iraq (2003)
  • We the People (2007)
  • My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times (2009)
  • Do I Make Myself Clear?: Why Writing Well Matters, New York: Back Bay Books, 2018,

References

  • Sir Harold Evans official website
  • Column archive at The Daily Beast
  • Column archive at The Huffington Post
  • Column archive at The Guardian
  • Harold Evans at The Daily Beast
  • Harold Evans at Reuters

Radio and television programmes

  • BBC Radio 4 – A Point of View 13-week series from 29 July 2005
  • Love Letter to America BBC News, 29 July 2005
  • BBC audio interview 16 May 2005
  • They Made America PBS
  • “A Word on Words; 2719; Harold Evans,” 1998-12-01, Nashville Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting

Interviews

  • Harold Evans: They Made America from Bill Thompson's Eye on Books, audio of Harold Evans interview
  • The American Century from CNN Book News, 13 November 1998, includes audio clips from Harold Evans
  • The American Century transcript of Harold Evans interview from PBS NewsHour, 8 June 1999
  • Media Giants: Harry Evans profile on Media Circus, July 2007
  • Harold Evans Sees Bright Future for Print-on-Demand Newspapers from PBS MediaShift, 29 October 2009, interview includes audio clips
  • , Reuters, 14 June 2011