Graham Lord


Graham Lord was a British biographer and novelist. His biographies include those of Jeffrey Bernard, James Herriot, Dick Francis, Arthur Lowe, David Niven, John Mortimer and Joan Collins. He was the literary editor of the Sunday Express for 23 years, from 1969 to 1992.

Life

Lord was born in Southern Rhodesia, raised in Mozambique, educated at Falcon College, Zimbabwe and took an honours degree in History at Churchill College, Cambridge, where he edited the university newspaper Varsity.
After working briefly for the Cambridge Evening News, in 1965 he joined the Sunday Express in London as a reporter and feature writer, where he spent 23 years as Literary Editor, wrote a weekly column about books and interviewed almost every major English language author of the 1960s to 1990s, including Graham Greene, Dame Muriel Spark and Ruth Rendell.
From 1982-88 he was vice-chairman of Newbury Mencap, from 1985-87 he represented the Lambourn Valley as a Conservative councillor on Newbury District Council, and in 1987 he launched the £20,000 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. After leaving the Sunday Express in 1992 to become a full-time author, he wrote regularly for The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Daily Mail. From 1994-96, he edited the short story magazine Raconteur.
He also published a memoir of the people he met during his forty years in Fleet Street, Lord's Ladies and Gentlemen: 100 Legends of the 20th Century, which includes an unflattering profile of his former editor at the Sunday Express, Sir John Junor. In addition, his other books include an autobiographical portrait of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, nine novels, and a collection of short stories, essays and journalism, Lord of the Files. His books have been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Russian and Chinese.
Graham Lord lived with his wife, Juliet, an artist, on Nevis, West Indies, and also in France.

Death

Lord died of liver cancer on 13 June 2015 at the age of 72.

Publications

Biographies

• Lord of the Files: Short Stories, Essays and Journalism, Fern Hill Books, 2013