William Keegan
William James Gregory Keegan, CBE (born 3 July 1938) is a journalist and a fiction and non-fiction author. He was Economics Editor of The Observer from 1977 to 2003, and continues to contribute to the paper as a columnist.
Education and early life
Keegan was educated at Wimbledon College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He completed his national service in the Royal Tank Regiment from 1957 to 1959.[1]
Career
Keegan became a journalist at the Financial Times in 1963; he moved to the Daily Mail in 1964, then returned for a nine-year spell at the Financial Times in 1967. He then worked in the Bank of England Economics Intelligence Department, and as assistant to the Bank's Governor, from 1976 to 1977.[1][2]
From 1977 to 2003 he was Economics Editor of The Observer; after reaching the age of 65 he continued there as a Senior Economics Commentator.[1]
He has sat on a number of committees and advisory boards, beginning in 1981 on the BBC Advisory Committee on Business and Industrial Affairs.[1] Keegan has authored two fiction books, in 1974 and 1976, and eight books on economics and politics, between 1978 and 2012.[1]
In 1989 he became a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield, and in 2012 a visiting professor of economics at Queen Mary University of London.[1] He is also a visiting professor at The Policy Institute, King's College London,[3] and is involved in The Strand Group seminar series there.[4]
In 2009 Keegan received a CBE for services to journalism.[5]
As of 2019, William Keegan is a columnist for The Guardian.[6]
Personal life
Keegan is married to a barrister. They live in Islington, London. He has seven children, including four from a previous marriage.[5]
His brother Victor Keegan is a journalist at The Guardian.[5]
Works
Fiction
- Consulting Father Wintergreen (Unknown, 1974).
- A Real Killing (St Martins Pr, 1977).
Non-Fiction
- (with Rupert Pennant-Rea), Who Runs the Economy? Control and Influence in British Economic Policy (London: Temple Smith, 1979).
- Mrs. Thatcher's Economic Experiment (London: Allen Lane, 1984; 2nd ed. 1985).
- Britain Without Oil (London: Harmondsworth, 1985).
- Mr. Lawson's Gamble (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989).
- The Spectre of Capitalism (Radius, 1992).
- 2066 and All That: Britain and Europe Sort it Out (Iynx Publishing, 2000).
- The Prudence of Mr. Gordon Brown (John Wiley & Sons, 2003).
- Saving the World? - Gordon Brown Reconsidered (Searching Finance Ltd, 2012).
- Mr Osborne's Economic Experiment (Searching Finance Ltd, 2014).
- (with David Marsh and Richard Roberts), Six Days in September: Black Wednesday, Brexit and the making of Europe (OMFIF Press, 2017).
References
- "William James Gregory KEEGAN". People of Today. Debrett's. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "Keegan, William (James Gregory)". Writers Directory 2005. Highbeam. 2004. Archived from the original on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "Keegan CBE, William". King's College London. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- "Strand Group". King's College London. 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- Peter Gruner (6 March 2009). "'Your Majesty, I'm one of those writers'". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "William Keegan | The Guardian Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com.