Norman Shrapnel (5 October 1912 – 1 February 2004) was an English journalist, author, and parliamentary correspondent.

Biography

Shrapnel was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and was educated at The King's School, Grantham. In 1947, after war service in the RAF, he joined the

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, book reviewer, and theatre critic. He became the paper's (and the later Guardian's) parliamentary correspondent in 1958, succeeding Harry Boardman, a post he held until 1975. In 1969 he won the first Political Writer of the Year award."Norman Shrapnel Obituary"
''The Guardian'', 2 February 2004 He wrote books on history and politics (''The Performers: Politics as Theatre'' 1978, and ''The Seventies''), and on topography (''A View of the Thames'' 1977, and his ''Shrapnel's British Isles'' series, documenting places such as the Isle of Ely and the Isle of Axholme). For ''The Bluffer’s Guides'', he wrote ''Bluff Your Way in Politics''. Shrapnel

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, presenting British social and political life. He married Mary Lillian Myfanwy Edwards in 1940, and had two sons, one of whom was the stage actor and composer

John Shrapnel John Morley Shrapnel (27 April 1942 – 14 February 2020) was an English actor. He is known mainly for his stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in the United Kingdom and for his many television appearances. O ...

. He died aged 91 at

Far Oakridge Oakridge is a village in Gloucestershire, England. The parish church is St. Bartholomew's Church. It is just on the outskirts of Stroud, Gloucestershire. Oakridge consists of five hamlets; Oakridge Lynch, Far Oakridge, Waterlane, Bournes Green, ...

, Gloucestershire, in 2004.

References

1912 births 2004 deaths English columnists English writers British reporters and correspondents People educated at The King's School, Grantham Royal Air Force personnel of World War II {{UK-journalist-stub