Barbara Amiel
Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Lady Black of Crossharbour (born in Watford, Hertfordshire, UK on December 4, 1940), is a British-Canadian journalist and writer.
Early life
Amiel's 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 and later a private girls school in Edgware, Barnet, Greater London. In Canada, Amiel studied philosophy and English at the University of Toronto. Plagued with a deep-seated resentment of having to leave her middle-class life in England, Amiel left home at the age of 14.
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 Baron Black of Crossharbour due to his 2001 life peerage). Although it is her 4th marriage, it has been by far the most successful.
Career in journalism
She was a longtime columnist for Maclean's, 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. 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 of London and The Sunday Times. In 1994, she moved to Conrad Black's Daily Telegraph. She has won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for her journalism.
Amiel's Jewish background has caused her to be outspoken about what she sees as anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment, criticising its acceptability in some circles. In December 2001 she caused a furor by comments in The Spectator about anti-Israel remarks by an unnamed French diplomat, who described it as "that shitty little country"; this picked up on a previous Petronella Wyatt column about London's chattering classes. However, in 1992 she became notorious for a defence of David Irving, the historical revisionist who denies the Holocaust, and has also defended far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
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.
Publications
- By Persons Unknown: The strange death of Christine Demeter, 1976, George Jonas with Barbara Amiel. (Jonas and Amiel were married at the time.)
- Confessions, 1980, by Barbara Amiel, Toronto, Canada: Macmillan of Canada (ISBN 0770518419)
- Celebrate Our City ... Toronto ... 150th Anniversary, 1983, Barbara Amiel and Lorraine Monk, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (ISBN 0771060858)
- EAST AND WEST: Selected Poems. With a profile of the poet by Barbara Amiel, by George Faludy and Barbara Amiel, 1978, Toronto: Hounslow Press.