Humphrey Hawksley
Encyclopedia
Education
Hawksley was educated at the Junior and Senior schools of St. Lawrence CollegeSt. Lawrence College, Ramsgate
St. Lawrence College is a co-educational independent school situated in the town of Ramsgate in Kent.- History :It was founded in 1879, known as South Eastern College. The school rapidly outgrew the single house, leading to the main building of the present day college by 1884. The chapel was...
, an independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
for boys (now co-educational), in the coastal seaside town of Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, in south east England.
Life and career
After school, Hawksley joined the Merchant Navy, and sailed across the world. He joined the BBC in the early 1980s.In 1986, Hawksley was expelled from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
where he had reported on a number of government atrocities in its conflict with Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
separatists. In 1987 he covered violence in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and received death threats. In 1989 after the killings in Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
he went to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and reported on social stresses due to the country’s imminent transfer to Chinese rule. He was simultaneously a reporter for the whole of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. He later covered this transfer live in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. In 1994, he opened the BBC’s first television bureau in China. Humphrey Hawksley reported on fighting in The Balkans, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Timor
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...
Humphrey Hawksley has also reported on slavery in cocoa production.
Hawksley has written extensively in Newspapers including The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
.
Hawksley is also the author of best-selling political novels aimed at raising key strategic issues in the far east before a broader audience. These include Dragon Fire
Dragon Fire (novel)
Dragon Fire is a 2000 novel by BBC political and foreign correspondent Humphrey Hawksley about a 2007 war between China, India and Pakistan, which draws in Australia, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Tibet, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and threatens to escalate to nuclear...
, Ceremony of Innocence, Absolute Measures, Red Spirit and co-author with Simon Holberton of Dragon Strike
Dragon Strike (novel)
Dragon Strike is the first novel written by British journalists Humphrey Hawksley and Simon Holberton and first published in 1997, concerning a hypothetical war in 2001...
. His latest books are The Third World War
The Third World War (novel)
The Third World War is an apocalyptic novel, by the British journalist and author Humphrey Hawksley, portraying the modern world as it deals with the ever-worsening geopolitical situation...
, The History Book and "Democracy Kills: What's So Good About Having the Vote?".
The History Book was re-released as Security Breach on 28 July 2008. On his blog, Humphrey Hawksley explains the renaming thus: