William Shawcross

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William Shawcross (born 28 May 1946, Sussex) is a British writer, broadcaster and commentator.

Shawcross was educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, and worked as a journalist for the Sunday Times. He writes and lectures on issues of international policy, geopolitics, Southeast Asia and refugees for a number of publications, including Time Magazine, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, The Spectator, Washington Post and Rolling Stone magazine. He has also written a number of books, including biographies of Rupert Murdoch and the Shah of Persia. He is currently working on a biography of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Shawcross is Chair of Response, a charity helping refugees and others who have suffered for their political opinions and a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. He has been an advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2003, he was named New Statesman's Man of the Year, having had a high profile for supporting the invasion of Iraq and accusations of betrayal by left-liberal commentators.

Shawcross' father was the politician and lawyer, Hartley Shawcross, his mother Joan Winifred Mather, who died in a riding accident on the Sussex Downs in 1974. Shawcross married the writer and art critic, Marina Warner in 1970. Their son, Conrad, is an artist of rising prominence. He married twice more; he and his third wife, Olga Polizzi, live in East Dean, East Sussex.

[edit] Publications

Dubcek: Dubcek and Czechoslovakia 1918-1968 (1970), a New York Times Book of the Year.
Crime and Compromise: Janos Kadar and the politics of Hungary since Revolution (1974)
Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the destruction of Cambodia (1979), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience (1984), awarded the Freedom From Hunger Media Award.
The Shah's Last Ride: The death of an ally (1989)
Murdoch: The making of a media empire (1992)
Deliver us from Evil: Warlords, Peacekeepers and a World of Endless Conflict (2000)
Queen and Country (2002)
Allies (2004)