William Kay is a British financial and business

journalist 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 ...

Family and education

William Kay grew up in central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

where he attended

St Marylebone School St Marylebone C of E School is a secondary school for girls in Marylebone, London. It specialises in Performing Arts, Maths & Computing. In the sixth form, boys can also attend. On 1 September 2011 the school became a converter academy havin ...

and

Westminster City School Westminster City School is a state-funded secondary academy for boys, with a mixed sixth form, in Westminster, London. The school educates over 800 students, with links to more than 100 different cultures, in a central London location. The sch ...

. In 1965 he was awarded an Open Styring Scholarship to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...

. In 1968 he received a BA (

Hons Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, or ...

) and subsequently a MA. He attended UCLA's Professional Screenwriting course in 2014-15, and its Advanced Screenwriting course in 2017. In 2006 Kay accepted an invitation to emigrate to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

as "an alien of extraordinary ability". He became a US citizen in 2011, whilst retaining his British nationality. He lived in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, where, until 2013, he continued to write a weekly financial advice column for ''

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 ...

'' of London, and now writes obituaries of British and American business figures for The Times of London. He lives with Lynne Bateson, also a journalist, and has two adult sons, Andrew and Ben, and two grandchildren, Jackson and Indiana.

Career

Kay was on the staffs of 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 be ...

and the now-defunct

London Evening News The ''London Evening News'' was a newspaper whose first issue was published on 14 August 1855. Usually, when people mention the ''London Evening News'', they are actually referring to '' The Evening News'', published in London from 1881 to 1980, ...

in the early years of his career, and has been

freelancing ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, writing books and working for UK national newspapers since then. The British edition of

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...

records that William Kay has been the City Editor, Financial Editor, Money Editor or Personal Finance Editor of five British newspapers: ''

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 ...

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' and ''

Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

.'' Kay has also worked on the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' (1977–79) and the short-lived '' NOW!''

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...

. In 2009 Kay published his first novel, ''Pasadena Parade,'' a murder mystery set in Pasadena, California. He has subsequently written two screenplays based on that book, and another half-dozen screenplays since then.

Awards

* 2002: Wincott Foundation, Personal Financial Journalist of the Year Award. * 2005: Headline Money, Columnist of the Year (consumer media) Award. * 2005: Association of British Insurers, Lifetime Achievement Award.

Books

* 2013: (ghost) "The Tao of Comedy" by Bobbie Oliver. CreateSpace. . * 2009: ''Pasadena Parade,'' a novel. Booksurge. . * 1999: ''Lord of the Dance, the story of Sir

Gerry Robinson Sir Gerrard Jude Robinson (23 October 1948 – 14 October 2021) was an Irish-born British business executive and television presenter. He was non-executive chairman of Allied Domecq and chairman/chief executive of Granada. Early life Robinso ...

''. Orion. . * 1994: ''The Bosses: The Growth Industries of the Future and the Men Who Lead Them''. London: Piatkus. . * 1993: (

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

). ''Charity Appeals: The Complete Guide to Success,'' by Marion Allford Dent. JM Dent in association with the Institute of Fundraising Managers. Paperback: . * 1991: (editor) ''The City and the Single European Market.''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

: Woodhead-Faulkner. . * 1990: (editor) ''Clay and Wheble's Modern Merchant Banking: A Guide to the Workings of the

Accepting House An accepting house was a primarily British institution which specialised in the acceptance and guarantee of bills of exchange thereby facilitating the lending of money. They took on other functions as the use of bills declined, returning to their ...

s of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

and Their Services to Industry and Commerce.'' Abington,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

: Woodhead-Faulkner. . * 1989: (ghost) ''Nightmare:

Ernest Saunders Ernest Walter Saunders (born 21 October 1935) is a British former business manager. He became known in the UK as one of the "Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted fraudulently to manipulate the share price of the Guinness compan ...

and the

Guinness Affair The Guinness share-trading fraud was a major business scandal of the 1980s. It involved the manipulation of the London stock market to inflate the price of Guinness shares to thereby assist Guinness's £4 billion takeover bid for the Scottish d ...

,'' by James Saunders.

Arrow Books Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. . * 1987: ''Battle for the High Street''. London: Piatkus. . * 1987: (editor) ''The Stock Exchange: a Marketplace for Tomorrow.'' London: Sterling.

Folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

: . * 1986: ''The Big Bang: An Investor's Guide to the Changing City.'' London:

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

. . * 1985: ''Tycoons: Where They Came From and How They Made it''.

Salem, New Hampshire Salem is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 30,089 at the 2020 census. Being located on Interstate 93 as the first town in New Hampshire, which lacks any state sales tax, Salem has grown into a commer ...

: Salem House. . * 1983: ''A-Z Guide to Money''. London: Constable. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, William British male journalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)