Simon Hattenstone

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.

Simon Hattenstone
Born	(1962-12-29) 29 December 1962 (age 61) Salford, England
Alma mater	Leeds University
Occupation(s)	Journalist and writer
Employer	The Guardian

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] Hattenstone's 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: The Story of a Boy who Went to Bed with a Headache and Woke Up Three Years Later, 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 (2000).^[16]

References

1. Simon Hattenstone (profile), The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
2. Hattenstone, Simon (16 July 2010). "Growing pains: my journey into adulthood". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
3. Hattenstone, Simon (15 August 2022). "Dear Liz Truss: I'm woke, not business-minded and a leftwinger. Am I not your type of Jew?". The Guardian. 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. Horsfall, Mike (November 1998). "Out Of It - Simon Hattenstone (book review)]". Police Journal Online. 79 (11). The Police Association of South Australia.
7. "Who is Banksy? Suspected sightings of the elusive street artist". The Week. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
8. Hattenstone, Simon (4 July 2015). "Simon Hattenstone: the unpredictable and the unpublishable". The Guardian.
9. Pape, Susan; 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. O'Sullivan, Ronnie (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.

External links

• Simon Hattenstone, JournaListed, Media Standards Trust