Jonathan Fenby

File:Jonathan Fenby on IIEA.jpg in 2012]]

Jonathan Fenby CBE (born 11 November 1942) is a British writer, analyst, historian and journalist who edited major newspapers in Britain and Asia.

He was Editor of Reuters World Service from 1973 to 1977 and then held senior editorial posts at major news organisations in Britain, Europe and Hong Kong. He headed the China Team at the research service Trusted Sources from 2006 to 2022 where he was also a founding partner and a managing director at Trusted Sources{{cite news|url=http://www.trustedsources.co.uk/our-team/biographies/jonathan-fenby|title=Jonathan Fenby Profile|work=Trusted Sources|accessdate=1 March 2012|location=London|date=1 March 2012|archive-date=25 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325191628/http://www.trustedsources.co.uk/our-team/biographies/jonathan-fenby|url-status=dead}} an emerging markets research and consultancy firm headquartered in London which merged with Lombard Street Research in 2016. His investment and strategy research was focused towards policy interpretation, politics and the broader political economy including East Asian politics and strategy.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/opinion/the-bo-xilai-sideshow.html|title=Bo Xilai Sideshow|work=The New York Times|accessdate=11 April 2012}}

He has written twenty books, including The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved and Chiang Kai-shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. His books predicted the slowing of China's economy and the concentration of political power by Xi Jinping as well as the rise of the far right in France. He has worked as an award-winning editor and foreign correspondent at publications including The Observer and the South China Morning Post. He was made a CBE by Britain for services to journalism in 2000. In 2013, the government of France awarded Fenby the status of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur for his contributions promoting Anglo-French understanding.{{cite web|title=Johnathan Fenby|publisher=Macmillan Publishers|accessdate=5 April 2020|url=https://us.macmillan.com/author/jonathanfenby/}}

Education

Fenby was educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham and at Westminster School, an independent school for boys in central London, followed by New College at the University of Oxford.[https://books.google.com/books?id=KPR0pB9UCS4C&pg=PA583 Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda] Author: Roy Greenslade. Publisher: Pan Books (2004: Revised edition of 2003 Macmillan original). {{ISBN|0-330-39376-6}} Retrieved: 17 November 2012.

Career

Fenby joined Reuters in 1963, and reported from Europe and Vietnam as well as working as an editor at the head office in London. He was Paris bureau chief from 1968 to 1973 before being appointed as Editor of the agency's World Service in 1973. After leaving Reuters in 1977, he joined The Economist where he was chief correspondent in both Paris and Bonn (1981-1986) and wrote three books. He then became the first home editor of The Independent (1986–1988) and then deputy editor of The Guardian (1988–1993), followed by the editorship of The Observer from 1993 to 1995 and then of the South China Morning Post from 1995 to 2000 during the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.

After returning to London from Hong Kong in 2000, Fenby wrote extensively about China for British and other publications as well as working at various on-line services and as associate editor of the newspaper Sunday Business.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/inside-story-the-ex-editors-files-490081.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/inside-story-the-ex-editors-files-490081.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Inside Story: The ex-editors' files|newspaper=The Independent|date=9 May 2005}} In 2006, he was a founding partner at Trusted Sources in charge of the analytical service on China, which he visited frequently.

Between 1998 and 2019, he published 17 books, nine on China, four on France and others on the Second World War and the shaping of the world after 1945. He is quoted in press{{Cite web|url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/trump-threats-trade-china-tariffs-france-steel-worrying-analysts-51575396098|title = Are Trump's New Trade Threats Just the Art of the Deal? Analysts See Reason to Worry}} in the UK, US and Far East and broadcasts,{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinese-data-seen-worsening-in-next-two-months/2012/03/23/gIQAxvCdVS_video.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130209004507/http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinese-data-seen-worsening-in-next-two-months/2012/03/23/gIQAxvCdVS_video.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 February 2013|title=Jonathan Fenby on worsening Chinese data|newspaper=Bloomberg via Washington Post|accessdate=23 March 2012 | location=London | date=23 March 2012}} as well as speaking at conferences and lecturing at universities and public forums on China.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/lectures-talks/2019/may/contextual-lecture-crucible-the-post-war-world/|title = Contextual Lecture: Crucible – the Post-War World | Dulwich Picture Gallery}}

Fenby was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours List for services to journalism,{{London Gazette|issue=55710|date=30 December 1999|page=34 |supp=y}} and was appointed a Knight of the French National Order of Merit in 1997,{{cite web|url=https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000568610|title=ORDRE NATIONAL DU MERITE|work=Journal officiel de la République française|date= 15 November 1997}} and then of the French Légion d'honneur.{{cite web|url=https://uk.ambafrance.org/Ancien-redacteur-du-groupe|title=Un ancien rédacteur du groupe Guardian décoré|publisher=Embassy of France in London|date=25 March 2013}}{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} He is an Associate of the London School of Economics{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=64739664&privcapId=419693217&previousCapId=419693217&previousTitle=TSL%20Research%20Group%20Limited|title = Stocks| website=Bloomberg News }} (LSE) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),{{Cite web|url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff37264.php|title = Mr Jonathan Fenby | Staff | SOAS University of London}} and is on the advisory board of the financial forum, OMFIF.

Personal life

He is married to Renée. He has two children, Alex and Sara, and five grandchildren, Alice, Max, Lola, Kate and Ella.{{cite book |last1=Fenby |first1=Jonathan |title=Chiang Kai shek : China's Generalissimo and the nation he lost |date=2005 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York |isbn=9780786739844 |edition=1st Carroll & Graf pbk.}}

Bibliography

{{cite book|title=On the Brink: The Trouble with France|publisher=Little, Brown|year=1998|isbn=0316646652}}
{{cite book|title=Dealing with the Dragon: A Year in the New Hong Kong|publisher=Arcade Publishing|location=New York|year=2001|isbn=978-1-55970-559-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dealingwithdrago0000fenb}}
Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He lost, Free Press, 2003. {{ISBN|9780743231442}}.
The Sinking of the Lancastria: Britain's Worst Naval Disaster and Churchill's Cover-up, Carroll & Graf, 2005. {{ISBN|9780786715329}}.
{{cite book|title=Alliance: The Inside Story of How Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill Won One War and Began Another|publisher=MacAdam Cage|year=2006|isbn=9781596922532}}
The Seventy Wonders of China, Thames & Hudson, 2007. {{ISBN|9780500251379}}
Dragon Throne: the imperial dynasties of China (with Alexander Monro, Luke Hambledon), Quercus, 2008, {{ISBN|9781847244062}}
The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present, Penguin Press and Harper Collins, 2008. New Edition 2019 {{ISBN|978-0-7139-9832-0}}
The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved, Simon and Schuster, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-84737-392-2}}
Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China today, how it got there and where it is heading, Simon & Schuster, 2012. {{ISBN|9781847373939}}
{{cite book|title=The siege of Tsingtao|publisher=Penguin UK|year=2014|isbn=9780857977830}}
Will China Dominate the 21st Century?, Polity, 2014 second edition 2016 {{ISBN|978-0745679266}}
{{cite book|title=France on the brink: a great civilization in the new century|date=April 2014|publisher=Arcade Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-1-62872-317-5|edition=2nd}}
The History of Modern France, Simon & Schuster, 2015. {{ISBN|1471129292}}
Crucible: The Year that Shaped Our World, Simon & Schuster, 2018 {{ISBN|9781471155031}}

References

External links

[http://www.trustedsources.co.uk/blog/china Jonathan Fenby's China blog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213063434/http://www.trustedsources.co.uk/blog/china/ |date=13 February 2012 }}

{{succession box | before=Peter Cole | title=Deputy Editor of The Guardian | years=1988–1993 | after=Alan Rusbridger }}

{{succession box | before=Donald Trelford | title=Editor of The Observer| years=1993–1995| after=Andrew Jaspan }}

{{succession box | before= | title=Editor of South China Morning Post| years=1995–2000| after=Robert Keatley }}

Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford

Category:British newspaper editors

Category:1942 births

Category:Living people

Category:People educated at Westminster School, London

Category:The Observer people

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Chatham House people

Category:People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham