Ann Leslie
{{Short description|English journalist (1941–2023)}}
{{sources|date=November 2022}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Dame
| name = Ann Leslie
| post-nominals = DBE
| image = Ann_Leslie.png
| caption =
| birthname = Ann Elizabeth Mary Leslie
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1941|01|28}}
| birth_place = Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, British India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2023|06|25|1941|01|28}}
| death_place =
| education = Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
| occupation = Journalist
| title = DBE
| spouse = {{marriage|Michael Fletcher|1969}}
| domestic_partner =
| children = 1
| credits =
}}
Dame Ann Elizabeth Mary Leslie, DBE (28 January 1941 – 25 June 2023) was a British journalist who wrote for the Daily Mail.
Leslie was described as one of Britain's most famous and formidable journalists.{{Cite news |date=27 June 2023 |title=Obituary: Ann Leslie |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30811120 |access-date=27 June 2023}}
Education
Leslie was born on 28 January 1941,[http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/search/results/7666/Ann%20Elizabeth%20Mary+LESLIE.aspx Debrett's biodata] Debrett's in Rawalpindi, British India (now in Pakistan), where she spent her early years, attending an English-language school and "witnessed the killing trains of Partition".{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/05/ann-leslie-journalist | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Carole | last=Cadwalladr | title=Ann Leslie, Queen of the frontline | date=5 April 2009}} In 1950, her parents sent her to boarding school in England, where she attended the Presentation Convent School in Matlock, Derbyshire, and St Leonards-Mayfield School, East Sussex. She went on, two years later, to attend Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.{{cite web | url=http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/Alumni/Prominent-alumni.aspx | title=LMH, Oxford – Prominent Alumni|accessdate=20 May 2015}}
Career
Leslie's first job in journalism was at the Daily Express in Manchester in 1962."[https://web.archive.org/web/20100515144225/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-indestructible-journos-482007.html "The Indestructible Journos]", The Independent, 12 June 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2008. Leslie moved to the Daily Mail in 1967. She interviewed major film stars, entertainers, and political figures, and reported on numerous wars, civil conflicts and political stories in around 70 countries. At the Reuters/Press Gazette launch of the Newspaper Hall of Fame, she was named as one of the most influential journalists of the last forty years. In David Randall's The Great Reporters (celebrating the 13 best British and American journalists of all time) she was profiled as "the most versatile reporter ever".
She was a regular current affairs panellist on the BBC (Question Time, Any Questions?, Dateline London), Sky News, and international broadcasting organisations.
Leslie was interviewed by National Life Stories (C467/18) in 2007–8 for the 'Oral History of the British Press' collection held by the British Library.[http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Press-and-media/021M-C0638X0018XX-0001V0 National Life Stories, 'Leslie, Ann (1 of 6) National Life Stories Collection: 'Oral History of the British Press', The British Library Board, 2008]. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
Leslie was also interviewed in the 2012 documentary The Diamond Queen about Queen Elizabeth II.
=Foreign assignments=
Significant events on which she reported include the fall of the Berlin Wall, the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela's final walk to freedom. She made secret interviews in Iran and North Korea.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6217221.stm|title=UK – Ann Leslie, a witness to history|date=30 December 2006|publisher=BBC}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7713407.stm|title=Programmes – Hardtalk – Dame Ann Leslie|date=6 November 2008|publisher=BBC}}
After a dangerous experience at a Zimbabwean ZANU farm, Leslie went back to the press hotel in Harare where other reporters sent back stories without venturing out of the hotel. She called them Avon ladies; only interested in make-up (as in made up stories).{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/ann-leslie-stuff-and-nonsense-516279.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318162637/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/ann-leslie-stuff-and-nonsense-516279.html |title=Ann Leslie: Stuff and nonsense|author=INM|archivedate=18 March 2009 |accessdate=5 October 2015 |url-status=live|work=The Independent|date=21 November 2005 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.greatreporters.co.uk/reportersaleslie.htm|title=The Great Reporters – David Randall – Anne Leslie|publisher=greatreporters.co.uk}}
Her memoir, Killing My Own Snakes, was published in 2008.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/05/ann-leslie-journalist | title=Ann Leslie, Queen of the frontline | work=The Observer | date=5 April 2009 | accessdate=9 February 2012 | author=Cadwalladr, Carole | location=London}}
Personal life and death
In 1969, Leslie married Michael Fletcher, and they had a daughter.{{cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/06/27/dame-ann-leslie-obituary-daily-mail-fleet-street-war/|title = Dame Ann Leslie, doyenne of Fleet Street writers who interviewed presidents and covered wars from Bosnia to Afghanistan – obituary|newspaper = The Daily Telegraph|date = 27 June 2023|accessdate = 27 June 2023|url-access = subscription}}
Awards
Leslie won nine British Press Awards and won two Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 1999, she was awarded the James Cameron Award for international reporting.{{Cite web|url=https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/schools/communication-creativity/journalism/james-cameron-memorial-lecture/winners|title=Award winners|website=City St George's, University of London|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-date=8 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508075422/https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/schools/communication-creativity/journalism/james-cameron-memorial-lecture/winners|url-status=dead}} She was created a DBE on 30 December 2006, for "Services to Journalism".{{cite web|url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/archive-content/journalists-across-the-board-recognised-in-new-year-honours-list/|title=Journalists across the board recognised in New Year Honours list|publisher=Press Gazette|date=5 January 2007|accessdate=30 November 2022}} In 2012, Leslie won the Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Award at the eighth annual International Media Awards in London on 5 May 2012.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/awards-next-century-foundation-j3j8mgfffwj|title = Awards: Next Century Foundation}}{{cite web|url=http://internationalmediaawards.org/?page_id=153|title=2012 Awards|work=The International Media Awards|access-date=18 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604011012/http://internationalmediaawards.org/?page_id=153|archive-date=4 June 2012|url-status=usurped}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00936b8|title=BBC Radio 4 – Desert Island Discs, Ann Leslie|publisher=BBC}} She was recognised as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.{{Cite news |date=20 October 2013 |title=100 Women: Who took part? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-24579511 |access-date=18 December 2022}}
References
;References
{{Reflist}}
;Sources
- [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/05/ann-leslie-journalist Biographical article at theguardian.com]
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6217221.stm Short biography upon becoming a Dame] (BBC, 30 December 2006)
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/question_time/4165395.stm BBC biodata on Leslie]
{{100 Women by BBC in 2013}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leslie, Ann}}
Category:People from Rawalpindi
Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Category:Daily Mail journalists
Category:British women war correspondents
Category:English television personalities
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People from Matlock, Derbyshire
Category:People educated at St Leonards-Mayfield School
Category:English expatriates in Pakistan
Category:20th-century English journalists
Category:21st-century English journalists
Category:British foreign correspondents
Category:20th-century British women journalists