Valentine Low is a British journalist. He is the royal correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. Low worked on local newspapers in Northampton and Sheffield before joining the ''

The 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 bei ...

'' in 1987. Low started a column on the card game

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

at the ''Evening Standard'', and also wrote a column about his

allotment Allotment may refer to: * Allotment (Dawes Act), an area of land held by the US Government for the benefit of an individual Native American, under the Dawes Act of 1887 * Allotment (finance), a method by which a company allocates over-subscribed s ...

. Low's writings about his allotment formed the basis for his 2008 book ''One Man and His Dig'' which was described as a "guidebook for green-fingered urbanites". He covered the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in 2001 and the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

among other major news stories while at the paper. Low joined the ''Times'' in 2008 from the ''Evening Standard'' saying that "Perhaps I'm being impetuous but after 21 years I thought it was time to move on". Low replaced Alan Hamilton, who had been the royal correspondent for ''The Times'' since 1982. Low broke the story of claims of bullying of royal staff by

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Meghan was ...

in an article for ''The Times'' in May 2021. The story was published a few days before the broadcast of '' Oprah with Meghan and Harry'', an interview by

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

with Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. In an interview with

Amol Rajan Amol Rajan (born 4 July 1983) is an Indian-born British journalist and broadcaster who has been the BBC's Media Editor since December 2016 and a presenter on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021. Rajan was editor of ''The Indepen ...

for his documentary ''The Princes and the Press'', Low denied that the story of bullying allegations had been leaked to him with the "tacit approval" of

William, Prince of Wales William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educat ...

, Harry's brother. Later on Low elaborated further on the reason behind the report's publishing: "It wasn't my desire to get the story out before Oprah, or even the wishes of a sinister cabal of Palace plotters: it was the victims of the alleged bullying who wanted to have their story heard." Low's book ''Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown'' is due to be published in October 2022 by Headline. Excerpts from ''Courtiers'' were published in ''The Times'' in September 2022. The novelist

Penelope Lively Dame Penelope Margaret Lively (née Low; born 17 March 1933) is a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. Lively has won both the Booker Prize (''Moon Tiger'', 1987) and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books (''The ...

is Low's half-sister.

Bibliography

*''One Man and His Dig'' (

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, 2008) *''Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown'' ( Headline, 2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Low, Valentine Living people 20th-century British journalists 21st-century British journalists British newspaper journalists British poker players London Evening Standard people The Times journalists Year of birth missing (living people)