Alan S. Cowell (born 16 March 1947) is a British journalist and a former foreign correspondent for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''.

Career

Between 2008 and 2013 Cowell was a Senior Correspondent for NYTimes.com based in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. In March 2015, he left the staff of ''The New York Times'' but continued as a freelance contributor. He has also written for ''

The Times of London ''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'' (fo ...

''. Cowell began his journalism career as a reporter for British newspapers: ''The Lancashire Evening Post'' and '' The Cambridge News'' before becoming a news writer/reader at the

Swiss Broadcasting Corporation The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...

, in Bern, Switzerland, in 1971. He joined

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

in 1972 as a reporter based in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

Laurence, John. "BOOKS OF THE TIMES: Chasing Death, Then Being Chased." ''The New York Times'', 17 September 2003 and ''The New York Times'' in 1981. His reporting has covered primarily the Middle East, Africa and Europe. During a period of time based in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, he also covered the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and was a member of the traveling press accompanying

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in Latin America, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. During a 43-year career as a foreign correspondent, Cowell worked from news bureaux in Germany, Turkey, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Greece, Egypt, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. At Reuters, during the days immediately preceding Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, he was the last reporter known to have filed stories by carrier pigeon. In 1985 he was awarded the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for Foreign Reporting in recognition of his coverage of South Africa, whence he was expelled in 1987. He is currently based in London, where he has covered major stories including the 2006 killing of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer poisoned with the rare radioactive isotope, Polonium 210, which is the subject of his book ''The Terminal Spy''. His works of fiction have been set in locations including the English Lake District, Paris and South Africa.

Bibliography

* ''Cat Flap: A Novel.'' New York: St. Martin's Press, 2018. * ''A Walking Guide: A Novel.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. * ''Killing the Wizards: Wars of Power and Freedom from Zaire to South Africa.'' Simon & Schuster 1992. * ''Why Are They Weeping? South Africans under Apartheid'' (with David Turnley). Stewart, Tabori and Chang 1988. * ''The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder.'' Doubleday 2008. (US); 9780385614153 (UK) * ''The Paris Correspondent: A Novel.'' New York: The Overlook Press, 2011. (US) * ''Permanent Removal: A Novel.'' Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2016.

Notes

1947 births Living people British male journalists 21st-century British novelists The New York Times writers George Polk Award recipients Place of birth missing (living people) British male novelists 21st-century British male writers {{UK-journalist-stub