James Naughtie
T589302997
Archive :: production:T589302997, talk:S01599257111, venue:V637
Production details
James Naughtie has been a presenter of the Today programme since February 1994. His career in political journalism has taken him across the world for the programme - in Europe, the Middle East, China (including Tibet), Australia and, maybe most notably, to the United States. Since joining the BBC in 1988, he has worked on every presidential election and his store of American political trivia is the stuff of office legend. That American interest was the subject of his second book on the Blair era, 'The Accidental American' (2004) about Tony Blair's relationship with George W Bush. He had previously published 'The Rivals' in 2001: the book that first revealed the stormy nature of the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown. He was educated at Aberdeen University and at Syracuse University, New York. His career as a journalist began at The Aberdeen Press & Journal in 1975. In 1977 he moved to The Scotsman in London and joined its Westminster staff in 1978 and subsequently became the paper's Chief Political Correspondent. In 1981 he worked on the national staff of The Washington Post as the Laurence Sterne Fellow. James joined The Guardian in 1984, becoming its Chief Political Correspondent in 1985. Jim’s special interest is music. His 60-part series, The Making of Music (2007) for Radio 4 was voted radio programme of the year by The Voice of the Listener and Viewer. His book of the same name explains his passion of music. For some years he presented a Radio 3 programme on opera and has presented many concerts for BBC radio and television. He has chaired Radio 4's monthly Bookclub since it started in 1997.
