Keith Kyle
Keith Kyle(4 August 1925,Sturminster Newton,Dorset– 21 February 2007, London) was a British writer, broadcaster and historian.
Early life
[edit]Kyle was educated atBromsgrove SchoolandMagdalen College,Oxford University,where his period as an undergraduate was broken by war service.
Career
[edit]He worked for theBBCNorth American Service as a talks producer, succeedingTony Benn[1]in 1951. In 1953, he joinedThe Economistand was sent to Washington; later he was reporter for the BBC'sTonightprogramme from 1960, specialising in coverage of Africa[2]and based in Nairobi.[3]He also contributed toThe ObserverandThe Spectatorat this time, and coveredRhodesiain the period before theSmithgovernment'sUDI.[4]
From the late 1960s, Kyle began an academic career, while remaining active as a journalist for some years. He was a Fellow of theJohn F Kennedy Institute of PoliticsatHarvard(1967–68) and joinedChatham Housein 1972, where he remained for 30 years.[5]In the late 1980s,St Antony's College, Oxfordinvited him to become an associate member. His history,Suez:Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) first appeared in 1991,[3]and is regarded as definitive in almost all the cited articles. His other books includeThe Politics of the Independence of Kenya(Macmillan) in 1999 and his posthumous autobiographyKeith Kyle: Reporting the Worldappeared in June 2009, published byI.B.Tauris.
Parliamentary candidacies
[edit]Kyle had a chequered career as a parliamentary candidate. He had hoped to become a Conservative candidate in 1956, but government policy on Suez dissuaded him. He was an unsuccessfulLabour Partycandidate inSt Albansin1966,forBraintreein both 1974 elections and was theNorthampton SouthSDPcandidate in1983.[1]
References
[edit]- ^abJeremy Harding "Right, Left and Centre",London Review of Books,6 August 2009, p34
- ^David Wedgwood Benn"Keith Kyle"[dead link],The Independent,13 March 2007
- ^ab"Keith Kyle",Daily Telegraph,22 February 2007
- ^"Keith Kyle",The Times,7 March 2007
- ^Sandra Harris"Obituary: Keith Kyle",The Guardian,27 February 2007
- British male journalists
- People educated at Bromsgrove School
- People from Sturminster Newton
- 1925 births
- 2007 deaths
- 20th-century English historians
- Chatham House people
- Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
- Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
- 20th-century British military personnel
- Military personnel from Dorset
- British journalist stubs
- English writer stubs