Isabel Nancy Hilton

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 25 November 1949) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

journalist and broadcaster based in London.

Early life

Hilton was educated at Edinburgh University, where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level. As Secretary of the entirely non-subversive China-Scottish Association, based at her University, Hilton was placed on MI5's "Christmas Tree" list, which prevented her from employment with the BBC in 1976. By the time the issue had been resolved, Hilton had become a feature writer for the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

''.

Career

Having been the Latin American affairs editor at the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', she chose not to move to Wapping with her paper, and joined '' The Independent'' in 1986, filling the equivalent post there. Hilton joined '' The Guardian'' in 1997, where she contributed a regular column. Hilton presented '' The World Tonight'' (1995–98) on BBC Radio 4, and from 1999 presented ''

Nightwaves ''Free Thinking'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of their "After Dark" late night programming. The programme is a rebranded version of ''Night Waves'', "Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme". ''Night Waves'' was ...

'' on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

. Concurrently from March 2005 to July 2007, she was editor and then editor-in-chief of the

openDemocracy.net openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...

website and is now the editor of Chinadialogue and the

Third Pole The Third Pole, also known as the Hindu Kush-Karakoram- Himalayan system (HKKH), is a mountainous region west and south of the Tibetan Plateau. Part of High-Mountain Asia, it spreads over an area of more than across nine countries, i.e. Afghanist ...

. In 2019, Hilton delivered the annual

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...

memorial lecture at City, University of London on the subject: ''Journalism with Chinese characteristics: reflections on media in the new era.''

Personal life

Isabel Hilton is married to Neal Ascherson, with whom she has a son and a daughter. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2009 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2009 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

Publication

* ''The Search for the Panchen Lama'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, .

References

External links

Isabel Hilton
on Twitter
Biography as editor
of Chinadialogue
Biography
as a member of the

Lettre Ulysses Award The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre Inter ...

jury * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hilton, Isabel 1949 births Alumni of the University of Edinburgh BBC Radio 3 presenters Scottish journalists Scottish women journalists Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Aberdeen The Guardian journalists The Sunday Times people