Jonathan Aitken#Libel, arrest and prison

Aitken's parents were Sir William Aitken, a former Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, daughter of John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby.Stenton and Lees Who's Who of British Members of Parliament vol. iv p. 2"Aitken, Jonathan William Patrick", Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online ed., Oxford University Press, 2013; online ed., December 2013 Aitken is a great-nephew of the newspaper magnate and war-time minister, Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook. His sister is the actress Maria Aitken and his nephew is the actor Jack Davenport. He is godfather to James Abbott, the son of Labour left-winger Diane Abbott, who had been his voting pair.{{Cite news |date=25 June 2003 |title=Aitken weds for second time |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3021388.stm |access-date=2 October 2011}}

In 1979, Aitken married Serbian Lolica Olivera Azucki, a daughter of O. Azucki, living in Zürich, Switzerland; they divorced in 1998. With his first wife, he had twin daughters and one son, Alexandra and Victoria Aitken, and William Aitken respectively.{{Cite news |last=Edwardes |first=Charlotte |date=12 August 2001 |title=Aitken children in fight to keep share of estate |publisher=Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1337133/Aitken-children-in-fight-to-keep-share-of-estate.html |access-date=2 October 2011}}{{Cite web |date=12 September 2012 |title=Life – The Times |website=The Times |url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life//?token=null&offset=0&page=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912220356/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life//?token=null&offset=0&page=1 |archive-date=12 September 2012}}

Aitken married his second wife, Elizabeth Harris, daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, and former wife of actors Richard Harris and Sir Rex Harrison, in June 2003.

In 1999, DNA testing confirmed that Petrina Khashoggi, putative daughter of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, was Aitken's biological child, the result of an affair with Khashoggi's wife Soraya (née Sandra Daly).{{Cite news |last=Ridley |first=Yvonne |date=10 January 1999 |title=Family rallies round Aitken's secret Khashoggi love child |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jan/10/uk.politicalnews3 |access-date=26 March 2010}}

The paternity of Aitken himself has similarly been under question. In December 2008, Dutch historian Cees Fasseur said Aitken was the result of a wartime affair between Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Penelope Aitken.{{Cite web |title=Jonathan Aitken is of 'royal blood' |url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/40659/jonathan-aitken-%E2%80%98royal-blood%E2%80%99 |access-date=21 November 2014 |website=theweek.co.uk |publisher=Michael Wolfe |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304043848/http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/40659/jonathan-aitken-%E2%80%98royal-blood%E2%80%99 |url-status=dead }}

Aitken was born in Dublin, Ireland. His grandfather, Sir John Maffey (who was created The 1st Baron Rugby in February 1947), was the first official British representative to the newly independent Irish state, being appointed in October 1939, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were strained but improving. Maffey's official title was "United Kingdom Representative to Éire". Aitken was baptised on 16 October 1942 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, an Anglican church, and he was named "Jonathan William Patrick Aitken". The third name, "Patrick", was included at a late stage owing to the unexpected international importance of the occasion –- one of the Irish papers reported "British envoy's grandson is a real Paddy". The Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, who knew his grandparents, asked to attend the christening and his presence at the baptism was symbolic of improving Anglo-Irish relations. Also attending was Princess Juliana (later to become Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) as his godmother.{{Cite episode |title=The House I Grew Up In, with Jonathan Aitken as participant |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mw5n3 |series=The House I Grew Up In |network=BBC |station=BBC Radio 4 |series-link=The House I Grew Up In |airdate=29 September 2009}}

Aitken contracted tuberculosis, and at four years of age was admitted to Cappagh Hospital, Dublin, where he was an inpatient on a TB ward for more than three years, being cared for and educated by Catholic nuns. His father was severely injured as an RAF pilot when his Spitfire was shot down during the Second World War.

Aitken recovered and was discharged from the hospital aged seven. He lived with his parents at Halesworth, Suffolk, and learned to walk properly again within a few months.

Aitken was educated at Orwell Park School and then privately educated at Eton College, and then studied law at Christ Church, Oxford. His career initially followed a similar path to the post-war career of his father, who became a journalist and then the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.

He served as a war correspondent during the 1960s in Vietnam and Biafra, and gained a reputation for risk-taking when he took LSD in 1966 as an experiment for an article in the London Evening Standard and had a bad trip: "this drug needs police, the Home Office and a dictator to stamp it out".{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Tim |date=8 February 2004 |title=Pilgrim's progress |publisher=www.guardian.co.uk |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/feb/08/conservatives.religion |access-date=1 October 2009}}{{Cite web |title=The Real Jonathan Aitken |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/aitken.html |website=Channel 4}}

He was also a journalist at Yorkshire Television from 1968 to 1970, presenting the regional news show Calendar. Aitken was the first person to be seen on screen from Yorkshire Television when it began broadcasting.{{Cite news |date=21 July 2008 |title=YTV 40 years old – A voice for Yorkshire |work=Yorkshire Evening Post |url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/YTV-40-years-old-.4307767.jp |access-date=15 March 2010}}

In 1970, Aitken was acquitted at the Old Bailey of charges of breaching section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, when he photocopied a report about the British government's supply of arms to Nigeria, and sent a copy to The Sunday Telegraph and to Hugh Fraser, a pro-Biafran (Nigerian Civil War) Tory MP. As a result of the case he was dropped as the Conservative candidate for the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.{{Cite news |date=7 December 1998 |title=Jonathan Aitken – a 'swashbuckling' life |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/229560.stm#law |access-date=26 March 2010}}For an account of the trial, see Aitken, J., Officially Secret, 1971, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Aitken was managing director of the Middle Eastern division of Slater Walker in 1973–75 and chairman of R. Sanbaar Consultants Ltd from 1976 to at least 1982, and a director of arms exporting firm BMARC from 1988 to 1990.{{Cite news |date=8 June 1999 |title=Jonathan Aitken: a timeline |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/mar/04/uk |access-date=26 March 2010}}

Aitken initially worked in parliament as private secretary to Conservative MP Selwyn Lloyd in 1964–66.{{cite book|editor-last=Mosley|editor-first=Charles |title=Debrett's Handbook 1982, Distinguished People in British Life|publisher=Debrett's Peerage Limited|page=20|isbn=0-905649-38-9}}

Defeated at Meriden in the West Midlands in 1966 and dropped as candidate for Thirsk and Malton (above), he was elected as MP for Thanet East in the February 1974 general election; from 1983 he sat for South Thanet. He managed to offend PM Margaret Thatcher by ending a relationship with her daughter, Carol Thatcher, and suggesting that Thatcher "probably thinks Sinai is the plural of Sinus" to an Egyptian newspaper. He stayed on the backbenches throughout Thatcher's premiership, as well as participating in the re-launch of TV-AM, when broadcaster Anna Ford threw her wine at him to express her outrage at both his behaviour and the unwelcome consequent transformation of the TV station.

Aitken wrote a highly confidential letter to Thatcher in early 1980, dealing with allegations that the former Director-General of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis, had been a double agent also working for the Soviet Union. This information had come to Aitken from retired CIA spymaster James Angleton. Espionage historian Chapman Pincher obtained a copy of the letter, and used former MI5 officers Peter Wright and Arthur Martin as his main additional secret sources, to write the sensational book Their Trade is Treachery in 1981. This matter continued to be highly controversial throughout the 1980s, and led to Wright eventually publishing his own book Spycatcher in 1987, despite the government's prolonged Australian court attempts to stop him from doing so.A Web of Deceit: The Spycatcher Affair, by Chapman Pincher, London 1987, Sidgwick and Jackson, {{ISBN|0-283-99654-4}}

Aitken became Minister of State for Defence Procurement under prime minister John Major in 1992. He was later accused of violating ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Paris Ritz, perjured himself and was jailed (see below).

Aitken had previously been a director of BMARC, an arms exporter during 1988–1990. In 1995, a Commons motion showed that while a Cabinet minister he had signed a controversial Public Interest Immunity Certificate (PIIC) in September 1992 relating to the Matrix Churchill trial, and that the "gagged" documents included ones relating to the supply of arms to Iran by BMARC for a period when he was a director of the company.{{Cite news |last=Blackhurst |first=Chris |date=29 June 1995 |title=MPs to question Aitken over BMARC arms allegations |work=The Independent |location=London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/mps-to-question-aitken-over-bmarc-arms-allegations-1588805.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/mps-to-question-aitken-over-bmarc-arms-allegations-1588805.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=7 May 2010}}

He became Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1994, a Cabinet position, but resigned in 1995 following the allegations that he had violated ministerial rules.

He was defeated in the 1997 general election. Within a year he had been appointed as a representative for the defence manufacturer GEC-Marconi (part of BAE Systems since November 1999).

On 10 April 1995, The Guardian carried a front-page report on Aitken's dealings with leading Saudis. The story was the result of a long investigation carried out by journalists from the newspaper and from Granada Television's World in Action programme. The Guardian also alleged Aitken, when Minister for Defence Procurement, procured prostitutes for Arab businessmen. Granada's World in Action programme repeated the accusation in a television documentary called Jonathan of Arabia.[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/aitken-falls-on-sword-of-truth-1.83912 Aitken falls on 'sword of truth'] Irish Times[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1997/jun/21/uk.davidpallister He lied and lied and lied] The Guardian

Aitken had called a press conference at the Conservative Party offices in Smith Square, London, at 5 p.m. that same day denouncing the claims and demanding that the World in Action documentary, which was due to be screened three hours later, withdraw them. He said:

{{blockquote|If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight. The fight [is] against falsehood and those who peddle it. My fight begins today. Thank you and good afternoon.{{Cite news |title=Aitken sues over Saudi claims |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=http://century.guardian.co.uk/1990-1999/Story/0,,112789,00.html |access-date=7 May 2010}}}}

The World in Action film Jonathan of Arabia was transmitted as planned and Aitken carried out his threat to sue. The action collapsed in June 1997 (a month after he had lost his seat in the 1997 general election) when The Guardian and Granada produced, via their counsel George Carman, evidence countering his claim that his wife, Lolicia Aitken, paid for the hotel stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The evidence consisted of airline vouchers and other documents showing that his wife had, in fact, been in Switzerland at the time when she had allegedly been at the Ritz in Paris. The joint Guardian/Granada investigation indicated an arms deal scam involving Aitken's friend and business partner, the Lebanese businessman Mohammed Said Ayas, a close associate of Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia. It was alleged that Aitken had been prepared to have his teenage daughter lie under oath to support his version of events, had the case continued.{{Cite news |title=Atkin |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/aitken |access-date=26 March 2010}}

A few days after the libel case collapsed, World in Action broadcast a special edition, which echoed Aitken's "sword of truth" speech. It was titled "The Dagger of Deceit".

During this time, it emerged that when Aitken was being encouraged to resign, he was chairman of the secretive right-wing think-tank Le Cercle,{{Cite book |last=Hirst |first=Chrissie |url=http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/countries/saudi-arabia.php |title=The Arabian Connection: The UK Arms Trade to Saudi Arabia |year=2000 |isbn=0-9506922-5-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922154928/http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/countries/saudi-arabia.php |archive-date=22 September 2008 |url-status=dead }} alleged by Alan Clark to be funded by the CIA.{{Cite news |last=Blackhurst |first=Chris |date=29 June 1997 |title=Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club |work=The Independent |location=London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/aitken-dropped-by-the-rights-secret-club-1258522.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/aitken-dropped-by-the-rights-secret-club-1258522.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=8 March 2010}}

Aitken was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice and, after pleading guilty on 8 June 1999 to both offences, was sentenced to jail for 18 months{{Cite news |date=8 June 1999 |title=Aitken jailed for 18 months |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jun/08/uk |access-date=26 March 2010}} of which he served almost seven months as a custodial sentence.{{Cite news |title=BBC News UK POLITICS Aitken freed from prison |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/593724.stm |access-date=19 May 2015}} While Aitken was sentenced, justice Scott Baker said Aitken had breached trust inexcusably.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/8/newsid_2500000/2500465.stm "1999: Liar Aitken jailed for 18 months"], BBC. Baker told Aitken: "For nearly four years you wove a web of deceit in which you entangled yourself and from which there was no way out unless you were prepared to come clean and tell the truth. Unfortunately you were not."[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jun/08/uk Aitken jailed for 18 months] The Guardian

During the preceding libel trial, his wife Lolicia, who later left him, was called as a witness to sign a supportive affidavit to the effect that she had paid his Paris hotel bill, but did not appear. In the end, with the case already in court, investigative work by The Guardian reporters into Swiss hotel and British Airways records showed that neither his daughter nor his wife had been in Paris at the time in question.

Aitken was unable to cover the legal costs of his libel trial{{Cite web |date=2011-05-10 |title=Alan Rusbridger: The long, slow road to libel reform |url=http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/may/10/alan-rusbridger-libel-reform-speech |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} and was declared bankrupt. As part of the bankruptcy, his trustees settled legal actions against the magazine Private Eye, over the claims it had made that Aitken was a "serial liar". He also became one of the few people to resign from the Privy Council. Aitken's wife and three daughters turned up to support him when he was sentenced.

Aitken attended the Alpha Course in 1997, which he said stirred his interest in Christianity. He attended the course on further occasions prior to imprisonment.{{Cite news |title=Jonathan Aitken says Sorry |work=the Tablet |url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/page/jonathanaitken |access-date=19 October 2011 |archive-date=5 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105203436/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/page/jonathanaitken |url-status=dead }} After being imprisoned in 1999, he began to study the Bible, learned Greek, and became a student of Christian theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. This part of his life is covered in two autobiographical works called Pride and Perjury and Porridge and Passion.

Aitken's claim that he had found God was met with some scepticism.{{Cite news |date=21 May 1998 |title=Jonathan Aitken's confession |work=The Tablet |url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/6729 |access-date=2 October 2011}}{{Cite news |last=Blackhurst |first=Chris |date=21 December 1997 |title=Villain of the Year: Jonathan Aitken; The liar who claims he's turned to God for solace – Life & Style |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/villain-of-the-year-jonathan-aitken-the-liar-who-claims-hes-turned-to-god-for-solace-1290086.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/villain-of-the-year-jonathan-aitken-the-liar-who-claims-hes-turned-to-god-for-solace-1290086.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=2 October 2011}} Aitken said: "In a different era, I'd have been one of the cynics myself. If I'd had a parliamentary colleague who’d got into trouble, gone to jail and come out saying, 'I've found God', I'd have said, 'Oh, how very convenient for him'."[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jun/03/jonathan-aitken-to-be-ordained-as-a-deacon Jonathan Aitken to be ordained as a deacon] The Guardian

The Guardian might insist that Aitken demonstrate the sincerity of repentance by repaying the whopping legal bill of one-and-half-million pounds he landed on them by his dishonest libel action. He was allowed to drop the case on promising to pay costs, but then escaped from the liability when he declared himself bankrupt and revealed that most of his apparent assets turn out to be conveniently owned by other people. The Guardian still believe he has more resources than he will admit.

In 2000 he said that he would not become a vicar because he considered himself not worthy of the office and "wouldn't like to give dog-collars a bad name".{{Cite news |last=Barwick |first=Sandra |date=2 November 2000 |title=I am not worthy of life as a vicar, says Aitken |publisher=Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1372756/I-am-not-worthy-of-life-as-a-vicar-says-Aitken.html |access-date=2 October 2011}}

In 2006 Aitken became honorary president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.{{Cite web |title=Christian Solidarity website 2006 |url=http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=response_article&id=126 |access-date=2 October 2011 |publisher=Christian Solidarity Worldwide}}

On 30 June 2018, Aitken was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon by Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London.{{Cite web |date=2 July 2018 |title=Diocese welcomes new clergy for London churches |url=https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/diocese-welcomes-new-clergy-london-churches-2/ |access-date=24 August 2018 |website=Diocese of London}}{{Cite web |date=30 June 2018 |title=Ex-Tory MP Aitken becomes prison chaplain |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44668185 |access-date=24 August 2018 |website=BBC News}} Since then he has served as a non-stipendiary minister at St Matthew's Church, Westminster{{Crockford| surname = Aitken | forenames = Jonathan | id = 50450 | accessed = 24 August 2018}} and as a chaplain of Pentonville Prison.{{Cite web |title=Jails in desperate need of support, says Jonathan Aitken |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/24-august/news/uk/the-revd-jonathan-aitken-jails-in-desperate-need-of-support |access-date=20 May 2019 |website=The Church Times}}

Exactly one year after becoming deacon, on 30 June 2019, Aitken was ordained as an Anglican priest in St Mary's Church, Stoke Newington, also by the Bishop of London.

In early 2004, some constituency party members in Aitken's former seat of South Thanet proposed that he should return as Conservative candidate for the seat in the 2005 general election. This was vetoed by Conservative Party leader Michael Howard.{{Cite news |date=6 February 2004 |title=Howard blocks Aitken's comeback |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3466651.stm |access-date=26 March 2010}}

Aitken later confirmed that he would not attempt a return to Parliament, saying that "the leader has spoken. I accept his judgement with good grace." He denied rumours he was to stand as an independent candidate insisting that he was not a "spoiler".

Aitken later declared his support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP){{Cite news |date=4 June 2004 |title=Disgraced Tory Aitken backs UKIP |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3777777.stm |access-date=26 March 2010}} a week before the party's equally strong performance as the Liberal Democrats, with both parties winning 12 seats each in the 2004 European elections. On 2 October 2004, Aitken attended the (UKIP) conference and re-iterated his support for the party.

In November 2007, with the approval of senior members of the shadow cabinet, he took charge of a task force on prison reform within Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice to help formulate Conservative Party policy.{{Cite news |last=Watt |first=Nicholas |date=11 November 2007 |title=Disgraced Aitken in key new Tory role |work=The Observer |location=London |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2209333,00.html |access-date=7 May 2010}} Aitken said this was not part of a political comeback. Conservative spokesmen pointed out that the task force is independent of the party, even though the organisation was run by Iain Duncan Smith. The report Locked Up Potential: A Strategy to Reform our Prisons and Rehabilitate our Prisoners{{Cite news |last=Hinsliff |first=Gaby |date=22 March 2009 |title=Give convicts a fresh start, pleads Aitken |work=The Observer |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/22/jonathan-aitkin-prison-reform |access-date=26 March 2010}}{{Cite web |title=Locked up potential |url=http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/client/downloads/CSJLockedUpPotentialFULLrEPORT.pdf |access-date=19 October 2011 |publisher=Centre for Social Justice}} was published in March 2009.{{Cite news |last=Travis |first=Alan |date=25 March 2009 |title=Scrap Titan jail plans, urges Jonathan Aitken |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/mar/24/jonathan-aitken-prison-reform-group |access-date=26 March 2010}}{{Cite news |last=James |first=Erwin |date=25 March 2009 |title=Prisoners of hope |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/mar/25/prison-reform-jonathan-aitken |access-date=26 March 2010}}

In September 2020, it was revealed that the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, awarded Aitken a parliamentary pass despite the House of Commons claiming that former MPs who had been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of one year or more were ineligible. In September 2020 Aitken had held a pass continuously since at least December 2015.{{Cite news|last1=Pegg|first1=David|last2=Duncan|first2=Pamela|date=20 September 2020|title=Jonathan Aitken given parliamentary pass despite jail sentence|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/20/jonathan-aitken-given-parliamentary-pass-despite-jail-sentence|access-date=21 September 2020|issn=0261-3077}}

In his early book The Young Meteors (London: Secker & Warburg, 1967; New York: Atheneum, 1967), Aitken profiled the brightest lights among the younger generation in Britain, and particularly London, with a hint in the title that many of these were likely to burn and crash. Hunter Davies, one of the people profiled, has pointed out that such lists of the promising were then common in The Sunday Times, but unusual as books.Davies quoted in Craig Taylor,[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/sep/06/weekend.craigtaylor "Promises, promises"], The Guardian, 6 September 2003. Retrieved 12 February 2013. Much later, Craig Taylor in 2003 observed that those profiled who were still burning brightly included Michael Caine, David Bailey, Twiggy, David Frost and Don McCullin. Taylor found it humdrum, but:

the book is worth re-examining these many years later for one reason. Aitken, it has been shown over time, is a figure we can always learn something from, a kind of walking, well-groomed Grimm's fairy tale. . . . In [this book] he intuits the popularity and importance of unquantifiable lists of who is hot, young and going places.Craig Taylor, [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/sep/06/weekend.craigtaylor "Promises, promises"], The Guardian, 6 September 2003. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

Aitken himself in 2003 had a low opinion of the book: "In terms of style, it was certainly the worst book I've ever written".Aitken quoted in Craig Taylor, [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/sep/06/weekend.craigtaylor "Promises, promises"], The Guardian, 6 September 2003. Retrieved 12 February 2013. Yet the title was memorable: it was consciously adopted by Martin Harrison for a survey of the British photojournalism (including Bailey and McCullin) of about the same period.Martin Harrison, Young Meteors: British Photojournalism, 1957–1965 (London: Cape, 1998; {{ISBN|0-224-05129-6}}). Harrison writes in the book's preface: "The title 'Young Meteors' [is] taken from Jonathan Aitken's 1976 survey of the financial enterprise of sixties youth. . . ."

In 2009 Aitken published a biography of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, with the subject's cooperation. The Diplomat observed that the publisher's note "describes Nazarbayev as a 'widely admired' leader, which is an interesting descriptor for a political leader who has never won an election deemed free or fair." Aitken received a Kazakh award for his "huge contribution to making Kazakhstan popular in the world and promoting its global reputation".{{Cite news|last=Casey|first=Michael|date=11 April 2017|title=Kazakhstan Thanks British Nazarbayev Biographer|work=The Diplomat|location=Arlington, VA|url=https://thediplomat.com/2017/04/kazakhstan-thanks-british-nazarbayev-biographer/|access-date=26 April 2017}}

The book sold only 466 copies{{Cite news|date=6 October 2021|title=Jonathan Aitken was paid £166,000 for book on Kazakh autocrat, leak suggests|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/06/jonathan-aitken-paid-for-book-kazakh-autocrat-leak-suggests|access-date=6 October 2021|work=The Guardian|language=en}} and was widely panned by critics, The Guardian noting that the book "relies, for supporting evidence, on the good opinions of his [Nazarbayev's] friends (or of those too cowed to utter a word out of place). It becomes curiously tolerant when oppression, corruption and galloping megalomania are on the menu." The review also described it as "a fascinating, cleverly orchestrated snow job: quite probably the hagiography of the year."{{Cite web|date=18 July 2009|title=Review: Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan by Jonathen Aitken|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/nazarbayev-kazakhstan-jonathen-aitken|access-date=6 October 2021|work=The Guardian|language=en}} The London Review of Books wrote that the flattery within the biography ranged "from the banal to the cringing."{{Cite news|last=Steele|first=Jonathan|date=28 January 2010|title=Was it better in the old days?|language=en|volume=32|work=London Review of Books|issue=2|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n02/jonathan-steele/was-it-better-in-the-old-days|access-date=6 October 2021|issn=0260-9592}} Eurasianet wrote that it was a "hagiography" that was part of Nazarbayev's personality cult.{{Cite web|date=8 August 2012|title=Kazakhstan Gets Nazarbayev's Official Life Story|url=https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-gets-nazarbayevs-official-life-story|access-date=16 October 2021|work=Eurasianet|language=en}}

In 2021, documents leaked in the Pandora papers suggested that Aitken was paid £166,000 for writing the book by organisations with links to the Government of Kazakhstan, despite Aitken telling Reuters at the time of the publication "that he had not received any payment from the government."{{Cite news|date=19 June 2009|title=Kazakh leader gets glowing bio by Jonathan Aitken|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-kazakhstan-president-idUKTRE55I22820090619|access-date=6 October 2021|work=Reuters|language=en}} One invoice from Aitken's firm dated April 2009 for £33,333 is marked as "agreed final instalment fee for book project".

Aitken has written several Christian religious books since his release from prison. He has published two books of prayers, Prayers for People under Pressure (2006),{{Cite book |last=Aitken |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rW7smhYIV9kC |title=Prayers for People Under Pressure |date=10 November 2006 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-8264-8275-4}}

and Psalms for People Under Pressure (2004),{{Cite book |last=Aitken |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YaAlzNvsk1oC |title=Psalms for People Under Pressure |date=29 January 2004 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-8264-7275-5}} and wrote a biography of the English slaver, and later Anglican clergyman and abolitionist John Newton, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, in 2007.{{Cite book |last=Aitken |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6pDZAAAAMAAJ |title=John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace |publisher=Continuum |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8264-9383-5}}

Aitken has written several biographies of political figures, including the President of the United States Richard Nixon (Nixon: A Life, 1993). He also wrote on Nixon's co-conspirator in the Watergate scandal, Charles Colson (Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed, 2005). Colson had assisted Aitken in his biography of Nixon, and had later corresponded with Aitken urging him to repent in the wake of the Guardian libel case. Aitken published a book of personal recollections of Margaret Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality, after her death in 2013.{{Cite book |last=Jonathan Aitken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bc1LAQAAQBAJ |title=Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality |publisher=A&C Black |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4088-3184-7}}

• A Short Walk On The Campus (1966, with Michael Beloff)
• Young Meteors (1967)
• Land of Fortune: A Study of the New Australia (1970)
• From John Bull to Uncle Sam: How to Run An Empire (1970)
• Officially Secret (1971)
• A British View of the Middle East Situation (1976)
• Nixon: A Life (1993)
• Pride and Perjury: An Autobiography (2003)
• Psalms for People Under Pressure (2004)
• Porridge and Passion: An Autobiography (2005)
• Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (2005)
• Prayers for People under Pressure (2006)
• Heroes and Contemporaries (2007)
• John Newton (2007)
• Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan: From Communism to Capitalism (2009)
• Kazakhstan and Twenty Years of Independence (2012)
• Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality (2013)
• Doing Time: A Spiritual Survival Guide (2021, with Edward Smyth)

• Jeffrey Archer, Aitken's contemporary, another Conservative politician imprisoned for perjury
• Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat politician, imprisoned for perverting the course of justice

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Stenton, M., S. Lees (1981). Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, volume iv (covering 1945–1979). Sussex: The Harvester Press; New Jersey: Humanities Press. {{ISBN|0-391-01087-5}}.

{{refend}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://www.jonathanaitken.org/ Official site]
• {{Hansard-contribs | mr-jonathan-aitken | Jonathan Aitken }}
• [https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1394 The Papers of Jonathan Aitken] held at Churchill Archives Centre

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Category:1942 births

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