Barbara Amiel
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Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Lady Black of Crossharbour (born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on December 4, 1940), is a British-Canadian journalist and writer.
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[edit] Early life
Amiel was born into a Jewish family in 1940. Her parents divorced when she was eight, after her father, Harold, left her mother for another woman. Her father later committed suicide in 1956. Her mother subsequently remarried and the couple eventually moved Barbara, along with her sister and two half-brothers, to Hamilton, Ontario.
While in England, Amiel attended North London Collegiate School and later a private girls' school in Edgware, Barnet, Greater London. Plagued with a deep-seated resentment of having to leave her middle-class life in England, Amiel left home at the age of 14, reportedly existing for the next two years as a street urchin. In Canada, Amiel later studied philosophy and English at the University of Toronto.
[edit] Married life
Amiel entered a brief marriage to Gary Smith in 1959, when she was 18 years old. She was married a second time to fellow journalist George Jonas from 1974 to 1979. A third marriage was to cable businessman David Graham in 1984, but they were divorced by 1988.
In July 1992, she married Conrad Black (later known as Lord Black of Crossharbour due to his 2001 life peerage).
[edit] Career in journalism
She was a longtime columnist for Maclean's magazine and has served as a vice-president of Hollinger. In the 1970s, Amiel was a broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and did some freelance work. By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter (1977), which she cowrote with Jonas, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime book. She was subsequently a columnist for the Toronto Sun in the 1980s and 1990s, also serving as the daily's editor-in-chief from 1983 until 1985 before returning to Britain.
From 1986 to 1994, Amiel was a columnist for The Times and The Sunday Times. In 1994, she moved to Conrad Black's Daily Telegraph.
Amiel is known for having strong opinions about what she sees as the acceptance of antisemitism in some circles. In December 2001, she caused a furore by reporting, in The Spectator, remarks by the then-French ambassador to the UK, Daniel Bernard, who described Israel as "that shitty little country."
In 2003, she attacked BBC current affairs coverage, claiming that it has been seen as a 'bad joke' for decades. Amiel lost her position as a columnist on the Daily Telegraph in mid-2004 after an argument with her editor, Martin Newland. In 2005, she rejoined Maclean's as a columnist under its new editor, Kenneth Whyte.
A dual biography by Tom Bower, Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge, [1] featuring an unflattering portrayal of Amiel, was published in November 2006. The book has been denounced by Black in The Daily Telegraph and Black filed a suit in Canada against its author. [2]
[edit] Publications
- By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter, 1977, George Jonas with Barbara Amiel. (Jonas and Amiel were married at the time.)
- Confessions, 1980, by Barbara Amiel, Toronto, Canada: Macmillan of Canada (ISBN 0-7705-1841-9)
- Celebrate Our City ... Toronto ... 150th Anniversary, 1983, Barbara Amiel and Lorraine Monk, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (ISBN 0-7710-6085-8)
- EAST AND WEST: Selected Poems. With a profile of the poet by Barbara Amiel, by George Faludy and Barbara Amiel, 1978, Toronto: Hounslow Press.
