Gideon Haigh
{{Short description|Australian journalist and non-fiction author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gideon Haigh
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1965|12|29|df=yes}}
| birth_place = London, England, UK
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Australian
| other_names =
| known_for = Editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia
| relatives = Sir Rupert Oakley Shoobridge (great-grandfather)
Louis Shoobridge Sr. (2x great-grandfather)
Ebenezer Shoobridge (3x great-grandfather)
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Journalist
| years_active = 1984–present
}}
Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is a British-born Australian journalist and non-fiction author who writes about sport (especially cricket), business and crime in Australia. He was born in London, was raised in Geelong, and lives in Melbourne.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gideonhaigh.com/ |title=Haigh's official website. |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-date=31 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031011737/http://www.gideonhaigh.com/ |url-status=live }}
Career
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,{{Cite web |url=http://www.gideonhaigh.com/biography |title="Biography" on Haigh's official website. |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-date=29 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329042334/http://www.gideonhaigh.com/biography/ |url-status=live }} both on business topics and on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006–07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times. He was senior cricket writer for The Australian,{{cite news|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/gideon-haigh|title=Gideon Haigh, Senior Cricket Writer|newspaper=The Australian|access-date=27 December 2023|archive-date=3 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003224724/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/gideon-haigh|url-status=live}} with his final column published at the conclusion of the 2023 Ashes series.{{cite news|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/viva-the-ashes-long-live-test-cricket/news-story/d3701383d28125b844aa2a5f86faeb6c|title=Amazing scenes: Viva the Ashes! Long live Test cricket!|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230731203518/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/viva-the-ashes-long-live-test-cricket/news-story/d3701383d28125b844aa2a5f86faeb6c?amp&nk=5f76929acb493018c4a8c09f3cf526f9-1690835730|archive-date=31 July 2023|newspaper=The Australian|date=1 August 2023|access-date=27 December 2023|url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/like-a-toddler-departed-senior-cricket-writer-lashes-news-corp-20231205-p5ep8x.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205185924/https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/like-a-toddler-departed-senior-cricket-writer-lashes-news-corp-20231205-p5ep8x.html|archive-date=5 December 2023|title='Like a toddler': departed senior cricket writer lashes News Corp
|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=6 December 2023|access-date=27 December 2023|url-access=subscription}}
Haigh has authored 51 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game. He has written two biographies, The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson); the latter was The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;Quoted in Haigh 2004, p. i.{{incomplete short citation|date=July 2020}} anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip (the humorous diary of a club cricket season) and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club of which he is a life member and perennial vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which details the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press. He has won the annual Jack Pollard Trophy for the best Australian cricket book six times.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".Easom, p. 184.{{incomplete short citation|date=July 2020}} He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/literary/pla/jcprize/winner2006.html Winner 2006: John Curtin Prize for Journalism, State Library of Victoria] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070909135658/http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/literary/pla/jcprize/winner2006.html |date=9 September 2007 }} for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2006/february/1340070032/gideon-haigh/infomation-idol "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604050435/http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2006/february/1340070032/gideon-haigh/infomation-idol |date=4 June 2014 }}, The Monthly, February 2006 which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
Haigh blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer."[http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/tour The Ashes Test Series 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712164124/http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/tour/ |date=12 July 2009 }}."
Haigh addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne on 24 October 2012. He delivered the inaugural Jack Marsh History Lecture in 2015 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on "How Victor Trumper Changed Cricket Forever".{{YouTube|zxIYgn0CJ-o|The Inaugural Jack Marsh History Lecture 2015}}
Haigh was co-presenter of the Cricket, Et Cetera podcast for The Australian with fellow cricket journalist Peter Lalor, however The Australian management ended both presenters' involvement with the podcast when Haigh left the newspaper after the 2023 Ashes series.
{{Cite tweet |user=plalor |number=1725386134627442725 |title=Apologies to Cricket Et Cetera fans receiving these. Unfortunately Gideon and I are not doing the podcast anymore.We had nothing to do with this or any of the recent pods sent out under our name.|date=17 November 2023|access-date=27 December 2023|link=https://twitter.com/plalor/status/1725386134627442725|author=Peter Lalor}} Lalor and Haigh have reunited their partnership in a new independent podcast and Substack website called Cricket Et Al.{{Cite web |last=al |first=Cricket et |title=About - Cricket Et Al |url=https://www.cricketetal.com/about |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.cricketetal.com |language=en}}
In March 2024, Haigh was flown to Israel by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), and wrote about his experiences there in an essay entitled "Highways to a war".{{Cite web |last=Saeed |first=Daanyal |date=2024-03-28 |title=An unusual Israel trip participant, Sky's aversion to facts, and the ABC settles |url=https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/03/28/media-briefs-gideon-haigh-sky-news-correction-abc-settles/ |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=Crikey |language=en-US}}
Personal life
Haigh was a resident at Trinity College from 1984,[http://www2.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/enews/1102.html Trinity E-News] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091428/http://www2.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/enews/1102.html |date=4 March 2016 }}, February 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2015. although he did not study at university. Haigh lives in Melbourne with his family. Haigh's partner from 2002 to 2005 was Sally Warhaft, who edited The Monthly until April 2009. Haigh stated that he would not write for The Monthly after Warhaft's controversial departure.{{cite news|last=Coslovich|first=Gabriella|title=Magazine meltdown: editor fired, deputy walks, writers quit|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/magazine-meltdown-editor-fired-deputy-walks-writers-quit-20090429-anf6.html|date=30 April 2009|access-date=2009-04-30|work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}
Bibliography
{{Main|Gideon Haigh bibliography}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://www.gideonhaigh.com}}
- [http://www.yarras.com South Yarra Cricket Club website]
- [http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an21834958 Libraries Australia "The cricket war : the inside story of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket"]
- [http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an11056226 Libraries Australia "The Border years"]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haigh, Gideon}}
Category:Australian Book Review people
Category:The Australian journalists
Category:Australian non-fiction crime writers
Category:English emigrants to Australia
Category:Journalists from Melbourne
Category:People educated at Geelong College
Category:People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)