Sam Leith (born 1 January 1974) is an English author, journalist and literary editor of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

''. After an education at Eton and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...

, Leith worked at the revived satirical magazine ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pu ...

'', before moving to the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', where he served as literary editor until 2008. He now writes for several publications, including the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', ''

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (minin ...

'', ''

'', '' The Wall Street Journal Europe'' and ''

The 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 ...

''. He had a regular column in the Monday London ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''. and appeared as a panellist on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

's '' The Review Show''. Leith has published several works of non-fiction, including ''Dead Pets'', ''Sod's Law'', ''You Talkin' to Me?'' and a book of poetry entitled ''Our Times in Rhymes: A Prosodical Chronicle of Our Damnable Age'' ''The Coincidence Engine'', his first novel, was published in April 2011. Leith succeeded Mark Amory as literary editor of ''The Spectator'' in September 2014 and was a judge on the panel of the 2015

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

, won by Marlon James with ''

A Brief History of Seven Killings ''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published in 2014 by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and ...

''. In November 2016, Leith was named the winner of the Columnist of the Year award at The Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards.The Comment Awards 2017 #eiCA17 brought to you by Editorial Intelligence
, Winners 2016

Published books

* ''Dead Pets: Eat Them, Stuff Them, Love Them'' (Canongate, 2005) * ''Daddy, Is Timmy in Heaven Now?'' (Canongate, 2006) * ''Sod's Law: Why Life Always Falls Butter Side Down'' (Atlantic, 2009) * ''The Coincidence Engine'' (Bloomsbury, 2011) * '' You Talkin' to Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama'' (Profile Books, 2011) * ''Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama'' (Basic Books, 2012) – US edition * ''Write to the Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page'' (Profile Books, 2017) * ''Write to the Point: A Master Class on the Fundamentals of Writing for Any Purpose'' (The Experiment, 2018) – US edition * ''Our Times in Rhymes: A Prosodical Chronicle of Our Damnable Age'', illus. Edith Pritchett (Square Peg, 2019),

References

External links

The Comment Awards 2018
> Shortlist, Popular Columnist of the Year
The Samuel Johnson Prize Judging CommitteeSam Leith, 2015 judge
at the

(archived 2016-01-27) * 1974 births Living people English male journalists 21st-century English novelists English literary historians Writers from London People educated at Eton College Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English male novelists 21st-century English male writers {{UK-journalist-stub