Simon Jenkins has spent much of his career interpreting Britain through its newspapers, its politics and its built heritage. He has edited both the Evening Standard and The Times, written columns for national papers and published books about English churches, houses, cathedrals and views. His work has also taken him beyond journalism: from public appointments in transport and heritage to six years as chairman of the National Trust.

Education and the early years of Fleet Street

Born in Birmingham on 10 June 1943, Jenkins was educated at Mill Hill School and St John’s College, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. While at Oxford he worked as the Oxford Union correspondent for Cherwell. After graduating, he joined Country Life, then the Times Educational Supplement. He went on to become features editor and a columnist at the Evening Standard, and edited the Insight pages of the Sunday Times.

In 1976 Jenkins became editor of the Evening Standard, a position he held until 1978. He then moved to The Economist, where he was political editor from 1979 to 1986. These jobs placed him in different parts of the British press: a London evening paper, a Sunday newspaper and a weekly publication with an international readership. In 1990 he took over as editor of The Times, remaining there until 1992.

Editing, argument and the newspaper column

After his editorship of The Times, Jenkins continued as a columnist for that paper and for the Guardian. In 1998 he received the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year award. In January 2005 he announced that he was ending his 15-year association with The Times to write a book; he later joined the Guardian as a columnist. He also wrote for the Sunday Times and the Huffington Post for a time, and resumed an occasional Evening Standard column after becoming National Trust chairman.

His commentary has covered questions of British foreign and domestic policy. In 2010 he argued in the Guardian that Britain should transfer sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to Argentina, with the islands leased back under United Nations supervision. In the same year he called for deep cuts to defence spending. Later, he supported continued UK membership of NATO and argued for remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum. His columns on Ukraine have opposed Western military intervention and military support; other journalists and commentators have criticised his position. These episodes show a writer willing to take clear positions, as well as the contested nature of his public arguments.

Jenkins’s journalism has not been free of controversy. In 2009, after Jacob Zuma sued the Guardian for defamation over one of Jenkins’s articles, the newspaper removed the article from its website, apologised and settled the case for an undisclosed sum. That account belongs alongside his editorial and writing career; it does not support the earlier article’s broader, unevidenced claim that he was a key investigative reporter or a source of major scoops.

Writing about buildings and national heritage

Architecture and the historic environment form a substantial strand of Jenkins’s work. England’s Thousand Best Churches, published in 1999, was followed by England’s Thousand Best Houses in 2003. His later books include Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles, England’s Hundred Best Views and England’s Cathedrals. He has also written broader histories, including A Short History of England and A Short History of London, and turned to railway buildings in Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations.

His interest in heritage was not limited to books and columns. Jenkins served as deputy chairman of English Heritage from 1985 to 1990 and sat on the board of trustees of the Architecture Foundation. In 2008 he became chairman of the National Trust, succeeding William Proby, and held the post until November 2014. The role connected his long-running attention to historic places with the governance of one of Britain’s principal heritage organisations.

His writing has also prompted sharp disagreement. The Celts: A Sceptical History, published in 2022, questioned the idea of the Celts as a distinct cultural entity. The book received hostile reviews from specialists in Celtic studies, who alleged factual errors and misrepresentation of sources. Recording that response gives readers context for the debate without treating critical assessments as settled findings.

Public service and recognition

Jenkins’s public appointments included service on the boards of British Rail from 1979 to 1990 and London Transport from 1984 to 1986. He was a member of the Millennium Commission from 1994 to 2000. These roles broadened his work beyond the newsroom, placing him in institutions concerned with transport, public projects and the built environment.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2003 and appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year Honours. In 2022 he became a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. His career includes authorship and editorial work as well as public appointments; the distinctions recognise his journalism, while his heritage roles show another dimension of his influence.

Why Simon Jenkins deserves a place in British Legacy

Simon Jenkins merits a place in British Legacy because his career has joined the daily business of journalism to sustained attention to Britain’s institutions and historic places. As editor of the Evening Standard and The Times, and later as a columnist, he has worked across several influential parts of the British press. His published arguments have addressed policy and national affairs, sometimes controversially. They form part of public debate rather than a record of unquestioned consensus.

His contribution to heritage is especially tangible. Books such as England’s Thousand Best Churches and England’s Thousand Best Houses direct readers towards buildings across the country, while his service at English Heritage and the National Trust brought that interest into public roles. The benefit is not simply a larger bibliography: sustained writing can help make architecture and local history legible to a broad readership, and heritage institutions help care for places beyond the reach of any one author. Jenkins’s combination of reporting, criticism, books and institutional service offers a specifically British story of how journalism can shape discussion of both public policy and the places people inherit.

Sources

Simon Jenkins — revision 1375678227 · Simon Jenkins

Adapted in part from Simon Jenkins by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.