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Simon Hattenstone

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Simon Hattenstone
Born (1962-12-29) 29 December 1962 (age 61)
Salford, England
Alma materLeeds University
Occupation(s)Journalist and writer
EmployerThe Guardian

Simon Hattenstone (born 29 December 1962 in Salford, England) is a British journalist and writer. He is a features writer and interviewer for The Guardian.[1] He has also written or ghost-written a number of biographical books.

Life

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Hattenstone grew up in a Jewish family.[2][3] He was severely ill with encephalitis for three years as a child, and became an ambassador for The Encephalitis Society.[4] He reported lifelong changes as an aftermath of his illness.[5]

He studied English at Leeds University and trained to be a teacher, then moved to London to work as a journalist. On The Guardian, he wrote a sports column for three years, in which he described the vicissitudes of being a die-hard Manchester City supporter long before it was revived after being acquired by the wealthy ruling family of Abu Dhabi. He also became assistant arts editor and film editor.[6]

Works

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Journalism

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Hattenstone is among the few journalists to have interviewed the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy.[7] People he has interviewed include George Michael, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Debbie McGee, Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Serena Williams, Katie Price, Desmond Tutu, and Penélope Cruz.[8] Hattenstone's phone interview of Judi Dench was deemed an example of entertaining feature writing, yielding "an unconventional but, ultimately, satisfying profile".[9] He also writes about crime and justice, and has covered many miscarriages of justice.[10] He was highly commended in the Interviewer of the Year category in The Press Awards for 2014.[11]

Other works

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Books by Hattenstone include Out of It: The Story of a Boy who Went to Bed with a Headache and Woke Up Three Years Later, about his childhood illness,[12][6] and The Best of Times, about the lives of members of England's 1966 football world cup team.[13] He has ghost-written books for the snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan[14] and for Duwayne Brooks, who was attacked with Stephen Lawrence on the night Lawrence was murdered.[15]

Film and television

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Hattenstone co-wrote the television documentary series Brits Abroad (2000).[16]

References

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  1. ^ Simon Hattenstone (profile), The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  2. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (16 July 2010). "Growing pains: my journey into adulthood". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  3. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (15 August 2022). "Dear Liz Truss: I'm woke, not business-minded and a leftwinger. Am I not your type of Jew?". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  4. ^ Foreword by Hattenstone, in Ava Easton (26 February 2016). Life After Encephalitis: A Narrative Approach. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-53837-0.
  5. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (13 March 2023). "'I have a hunch I was left damaged': what would a scan reveal about my brain?". The Guardian.
  6. ^ a b Horsfall, Mike (November 1998). "Out Of It - Simon Hattenstone (book review)]". Police Journal Online. 79 (11). The Police Association of South Australia.
  7. ^ "Who is Banksy? Suspected sightings of the elusive street artist". The Week. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  8. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (4 July 2015). "Simon Hattenstone: the unpredictable and the unpublishable". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Pape, Susan; Sue Featherstone (2006). Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction. SAGE Publications. pp. 83–86. ISBN 978-1-84787-813-7.
  10. ^ Simon Hattenstone, Wrongly Accused Person.
  11. ^ The Press Awards, Society of Editors, 2014.
  12. ^ Simon Hattenstone (1999). Out of it: The Story of a Boy who Went to Bed with a Headache and Woke Up Three Years Later. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-71869-8.
  13. ^ Simon Hattenstone (2006), The Best of Times: what became of the heroes of '66?. Guardian Newspapers Limited. ISBN 0-852-65064-7.
  14. ^ O'Sullivan, Ronnie (10 October 2013). Running: The Autobiography. Orion. ISBN 978-1-4091-1224-2.
  15. ^ New Statesman. New Statesman, Limited. 2003.
  16. ^ Simon Hattenstone: Biography, IMDb.
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