Jack Fairweather (writer)

Fairweather was born in Shrewsbury, England in 1978.{{cite web |title=Costa Book Awards 2019: Category Winners Announced |url=https://costanewsroom.vuelio.co.uk/press/press-releases/739843ff-7272-4def-9606-0dc0d04fdc33/costa-book-awards-2019-category-winners-announced |website=Costa |access-date=29 June 2021}} His sister, Chloé Fairweather, directed Dying to Divorce, a film selected as the British entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards in 2021.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13234764/ | title=Dying to Divorce | publisher=IMDb }} He was educated at Atlantic College, and at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford.{{cite news |last1=Picard |first1=Ken |title=Jack Fairweather Writes Story of Unsung Hero at Auschwitz |url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/jack-fairweather-writes-story-of-unsung-hero-at-auschwitz/Content?oid=27768824 |accessdate=25 June 2019 |publisher=Seven Days |date=19 June 2019}}

Fairweather was a freelance correspondent embedded with British troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was a stringer for The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad, where he met his wife Christina Asquith, a journalist working on contract to cover education issues in Iraq for New York Times. Fairweather claims he survived an attempted kidnapping and an attempted suicide bombing in Iraq.

He later contributed freelance articles from Afghanistan to the PostGlobal blog hosted by The Washington Post. His war coverage has won a British Press Award and an Overseas Press Club award citation.{{cite web |last1=Christian |first1=Bonnie |title=Jack Fairweather wins Costa Book of the Year with The Volunteer |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/jack-fairweather-costa-book-year-witold-pilecki-the-volunteer-a4347171.html |website=Evening Standard|location=London |access-date=29 June 2021 |language=en |date=2020-01-28}}

His book The Volunteer, a biography about Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who infiltrated Auschwitz during the Holocaust and Second World War, won the 2019 Costa Book Award.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51292797|title='Lost' story of Auschwitz hero wins Costa Prize|date=29 January 2020|publisher=BBC News|access-date=29 January 2020|language=en-GB}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/28/costa-prize-jack-fairweather-wins-book-of-the-year-with-the-volunteer|title=Costa prize: Jack Fairweather wins book of the year with The Volunteer|last=Bakare|first=Lanre|date=28 January 2020|work=The Guardian|access-date=29 January 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} "Witold Pilecki is a man whose footsteps I was following for 5 years. He is an extraordinary human being who exposed himself to the worst danger in Auschwitz and he risked his life in so many ways to report what was happening in Auschwitz. He made up a group of people who smuggled news to get them out from the camp"{{Citation |title=Jack Fairweather - Hyde Park Civilizace {{!}} Česká televize |url=https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10441294653-hyde-park-civilizace/223411058090121/ |access-date=2023-07-12 |language=cs}}

• A War of Choice: the British in Iraq 2003-9 (Vintage, 2012){{cite news |title=A War of Choice (brief review) |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-war-of-choice-by-jack-fairweather-8197965.html |work=The Independent |date=6 October 2012}}{{cite news |last1=Hastings |first1=Max |title=A War of Choice (book review) |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/a-war-of-choice-by-jack-fairweather-w8lzm9dd78f |access-date=25 June 2019 |work=The Times |date=23 October 2011}}{{cite news |last1=Rayment |first1=Sean |title=A War of Choice: the British in Iraq 2003-9 (book review) |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8981240/A-War-of-Choice-the-British-in-Iraq-2003-9-by-Jack-Fairweather-review.html |accessdate=25 June 2019 |work=The Telegraph |date=6 January 2012}}
• The Good War: Why We Couldn’t Win the War or the Peace in Afghanistan, by Jack Fairweather, (Basic Books, 2014){{cite news |last1=Mallet |first1=Victor |title=The Good War (book review) |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f32798ba-797d-11e4-9e81-00144feabdc0 |accessdate=25 June 2019 |work=Financial Times|location=London |date=5 December 2014}}{{cite news |last1=Farmer |first1=Ben |title=The Good War: the Battle for Afghanistan 2006–14; book review: 'sobering and riveting' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/11272961/The-Good-War-the-Battle-for-Afghanistan-2006-14-by-Jack-Fairweather.html |accessdate=25 June 2019 |work=The Telegraph |date=4 December 2014}}{{cite news |title=How the West Failed Afghanistan (book review) |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/06/how-west-failed-afghanistan |accessdate=25 June 2019 |publisher=New Statesman |date=11 June 2015}}
• The Volunteer: One Man's Mission to Lead an Underground Army Inside Auschwitz and Stop the Holocaust (Custom House, 2019)name="TfNhorrors"{{cite news |title=The man who volunteered for Auschwitz: New bio explores extraordinary life of hero who exposed Holocaust horrors |url=https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/the-man-who-volunteered-for-auschwitz-new-bio-explores-extraordinary-life-of-hero-who-exposed-holocaust-horrors-6515 |accessdate=26 June 2019 |publisher=THEfirstNEWS |date=26 June 2019}}
• A Rebel in Auschwitz: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Fought the Nazis From Inside the Camp (Scholastic Focus, 2021)
• "The Prosecutor: One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice" (Penguin Random House, 2025)

The Good War was a finalist for the 2015 Lionel Gelber Prize.{{cite news |last1=Wittmeyer |first1=Alicia Q. |title=Introducing the 2015 Lionel Gelber Finalists. Today's Nominee: Jack Fairweather |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/05/introducing-the-2015-lionel-gelber-finalists-todays-nominee-jack-fairweather/ |accessdate=26 June 2019 |publisher=Foreign Policy |date=25 March 2015}}

The Volunteer won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2019.

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Category:1978 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:British male journalists

Category:British war correspondents

Category:Writers from Shrewsbury

Category:People educated at Atlantic College

Category:People educated at a United World College

• [https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10441294653-hyde-park-civilizace/223411058090121/ Jack Fairweather v Hyde Parku Civilizace na ČT24 12.7.2023 (moderátor Daniel Stach)]