After Dinner SpeakersJohn Simpson CBE, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, is a renowned journalist and after-dinner speaker.
A veteran broadcaster and accomplished author, John has covered most major world news events from the 1960s to the present day.
His seminal reports on the big moments of recent history make up an illustrious list, including the Iranian Revolution, the First and Second Gulf Wars, the Fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, the Genocide in Rwanda, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
John’s stories of war and revolution are many and varied: he walked into Taliban-occupied Kabul at the head of the BBC news team in 2001, having previously infiltrated Afghanistan in extremely dangerous conditions, dressed in a burka.
He accompanied Ayatollah Khomeini on his plane from Paris to Tehran to depose the Shah of Iran; he danced on top of the Berlin Wall as it came down; he watched at close range the missiles raining down on Baghdad in the First Gulf War; he came very close to losing his life in the Second Gulf War.
An eyewitness to the many wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the Irish troubles and the South African and Rhodesian struggles, as well as the many other major revolutions in the former East Bloc of Europe and Latin America, it is safe to assume that ‘whatever the Headline of the day ‘- John Simpson will be there.
John Simpson – Guest Speaker:
As a guest speaker, John Simpson draws on decades of reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones to deliver fascinating, first-hand insights into global affairs, politics and international relations.
Combining extraordinary personal experiences with captivating storytelling, wit and humour, John offers audiences a unique behind-the-scenes perspective on the people and events that have shaped modern history.
140 Countries and 200 World Leaders:
John Simpson has reported from 140 countries and interviewed 200 world leaders and dictators, including Michael Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela, British Prime Ministers and USA Presidents, Fidel Castro, Colonel Gaddafi, Robert Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, and Vladimir Putin.
He met successive heads of the IRA, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban, the Medellín and the Cali Drug Cartels at the height of their considerable power. Osama bin Laden offered to pay anyone to kill him in 1989.
He interviewed Yasser Arafat under Israeli bombs in West Beirut and the slain Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, in Jerusalem.
But it hasn’t just been war and strife; it’s also been a life of great adventure. John has rounded Cape Horn in a small boat and man-hauled a sledge in the Arctic! He lived with a previously uncontacted tribe in the farthest reaches of the Amazon. He reported on the first sunrise of the new Millennium on a desert island in the South Pacific.
Awards:
John Simpson was made a CBE for his reporting in 1991. He has won numerous awards, including three BAFTAs, the International Emmy and Peabody in the U.S., and RTS Journalist of the Year twice, among others.
Twelve universities have awarded him honorary doctorates, including St. Andrews, Nottingham, Southampton, Exeter and Leeds. A Freeman of the City of London, he is also an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
He has written multiple books, incl. his memoir “A Mad World, My Masters,” which was on the Sunday Times Best Seller List for 6 months.
In 2022, “Unspun World with John Simpson” began airing weekly on BBC television worldwide and on BBC World Service Radio.
In true Simpson tradition, he has been reporting on the war in Ukraine. The BBC broadcast his interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to audiences worldwide.
