Educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, John Simpson joined the BBC in 1966 where he has remained ever since.

His early career saw him report on the troubles in Northern Ireland, later becoming foreign correspondent in Dublin, Brussels and Johannesburg. He went on to cover the Iranian revolution from beginning to end, the Falklands War from Latin America and was in Buenos Aires to witness the fall of the Argentine junta.

During his career he has reported from 140 countries and interviewed 200 world leaders including Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, Margaret Thatcher. Others on the list include every British Prime Minister since Harold Wilson, every German Chancellor since Willy Brandt, every French President since Giscard d’Estaing, Mrs Ghandi, Emperor Bokassa, Colonel Gadaffi, Bashir al-Asad, Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. He has also covered 46 wars on four continents and the trials of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania.

John has avoided death on more than one occasion having dodged bullets in the Tianannmen Square massacre and escaped American bombing during the 2003 Northern Iraq invasion.

He has danced on top of the Berlin Wall and over seen such events as the Czechoslovakian and Romanian revolutions, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the first Gulf War, the fall of Kabul in 2001 and was the first Western journalist to penetrate the KGB headquarters in Moscow.

All this and more has resulted in John receiving the majority of the broadcasting industry’s most prestigious awards including RTS journalist of the year on two occasions, three BAFTA’s, an Emmy, Monte Carol TV Festival’s Golden Nymph and the Bayeux award for war reporting.

Other accolades include being made an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, a Freeman of the City of London and President of The Chelsea Society. He was awarded the CBE in 1991.

In addition to his reporting roles, John has released the novel, Moscow Midnight – “The revelatory thriller from the much-admired and million copy-selling journalist”.

A highly regarded broadcaster and television journalist, John is a leading authority on UK and world politics, international current affairs and Brexit. He is in great demand as a presenter, host, moderator and speaker where topics of speech include; leadership, motivation, media, press relations and travel.