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Fergus Nicoll is a British
author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and former
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 ...
radio presenter.


Early life

Brought up as a Roman Catholic, Nicoll was educated at
Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, it is situated in the groun ...
,
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
(BA Oriental Studies) and
Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
, where he graduated PhD with a thesis entitled "Gladstone, Gordon and Sudan, 1883-5".


Career

After working as a teacher in northern
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, he began his career with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1988 with the African Service. He moved to the BBC's
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
Bureau in 1992 and spent three years (1996-9) as a World Affairs Correspondent, filing for the World Service and
BBC World BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...
TV. In 1999-2000, he was Press Officer for
Olara Otunnu Olara A. Otunnu (born 6 September 1950) is a Ugandan politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was President of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), a political party, from 2010 to 2015 and stood as the party's candidate in the 2011 presidential elect ...
, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict. From 2001-12, he was a freelance presenter on the BBC World Service radio programme '' The World Today''. From August 2012-July 2013 he was Public Relations and Publications Manager at the
Rift Valley Institute The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) is an independent, non-profit research and training organisation working with communities and institutions in Eastern Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes region. Established ...
. From April–June 2012, Dr Nicoll was the 2013 Sir William Luce Fellow at
Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...
, where he carried out research on the Da'irat al-Mahdi in Sudan. From September 2013 to August 2014 he worked in Doha, Qatar, as a Programme Editor and Executive Producer for
Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...
. From 2014 to May 2022 he was based in London as a presenter on the BBC World Service radio programmes Business Matters and World Business Report.


Writing

In 2004, Nicoll published a biography of the Mahdi of Sudan, ''The Sword of the Prophet: The Mahdi of Sudan and the Death of General Gordon''. His second book, a biography of the Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...
, was published by Haus Publishing in April 2009 as ''Shah Jahan: The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Emperor''. Penguin-India (under the Viking imprint) published the same volume in September 2009. Returning to Sudan studies, Nicoll published ''An Index to the Complete Works of al-Imam al-Mahdi'' in June 2009. The Abd-al-Karim Mirghani Cultural Centre in Omdurman followed this with the publication of an Arabic translation of ''The Mahdi of Sudan'' in October 2009, under the title ''Seif al-Nabi: Mahdi al-Sudan''. In September 2010, the Qasim Data Centre in Khartoum published Nicoll's ''Bibliography of the Mahdia''. In April 2013,
Pen & Sword Pen and Sword Books, also stylised as Pen & Sword, is a British publisher which specialises in printing and distributing books in both hardback and softback on military history, militaria and other niche subjects; factual non-fiction, primaril ...
published his reappraisal of British policy in Sudan: ''Gladstone, Gordon and the Sudan Wars, 1883-5: The Battle over Imperial Intervention in the Victorian Age''. In July 2013, Durham University published his Luce Lecture as 'Da'irat al-Mahdi: Money, Faith and Politics in Sudan'. In late 2014, the Modestine Press in Milton Keynes published the first in a series of annotated editions of important primary sources relating to the Sudan wars: ''A Cool, Equable Judgement: The Sudan Journal of Lt.-Col. J. Donald Hamill-Stewart''. Nicoll's most recent peer-reviewed article is 'Fatwa and Propaganda: Contemporary Muslim Responses to the Sudanese Mahdiyya', published in ''Islamic Africa'' 7/2 (2016): 239-65. In 2017, the Modestine Press published the follow-up to the Stewart journal: ''A Perfect Pandemonium: The Khartoum Journal of Major-General Charles Gordon''. This is currently being translated into Arabic, again for the Abd-al-Karim Mirghani Cultural Centre. In 2018, Modestine produced Nicoll's third volume of primary sources: ''Fully Equal to the Occasion: Frank Power and the Siege of Khartoum''.


Awards

*
Sony Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...
for "Best Breakfast Show" (1991) *
Sony Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...
for "Best News & Current Affairs Programme" ('' The World Today'') (2009) *
Association for International Broadcasting The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental trade association that represents international television and radio broadcasters and online broadcasters, founded in 1993. It is governed by an Executive Com ...
Award for "Clearest live news coverage - radio" (2012) for coverage of South Sudan’s independence for BBC World Service


References


External links


Fergus Nicoll
at
Penguin India Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicoll, Fergus Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Alumni of the University of Reading BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World News BBC World Service people Living people People educated at Ampleforth College Year of birth missing (living people)