Journalism After graduating from the University of Oxford where he was the Oxford Union correspondent for
Cherwell, Jenkins initially worked at
Country Life magazine, before joining the
Times Educational Supplement. He was then features editor and columnist on the
Evening Standard before editing the
Insight pages of
The Sunday Times. From 1976 to 1978 he was editor of the
Evening Standard, before becoming political editor of
The Economist from 1979 to 1986. He edited
The Times from 1990 to 1992, and since then has been a columnist for
The Times and
The Guardian. In 1998 he received the
What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year award. He gave up both on becoming chairman of the
National Trust in 2008, when he also resumed an occasional column for the
Evening Standard.
Opinions In April 2009,
The Guardian withdrew one of Jenkins's articles from its website after
African National Congress leader and South African president-elect
Jacob Zuma sued the paper for defamation.
The Guardian issued an apology, and settled the libel case for an undisclosed sum. In February 2010, Jenkins argued in a
Guardian article that British control over the
Falkland Islands was an "expensive legacy of empire" and should be handed over to the
Argentinian government. He argued that they could be leased back under the supervision of the
United Nations and that the 2,500 or so
Falkland Islanders should not have "an unqualified veto on British government policy". Soon after
Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, Jenkins wrote that his aides were "young, sneakered, tieless image-makers, and fiercely loyal to him." They were "special advisers, thinktanks and lobby groups isolated from the world outside." Jenkins has consistently argued against Western military intervention in and support for Ukraine in the
Russo-Ukrainian War. Before the outbreak of the Russian invasion in January 2022, amid heightened tensions, Jenkins wrote a pair of columns arguing that the United Kingdom should stay out of the "border dispute", one he argues is a direct result of '
NATO expansionism'. In 2023, he wrote a column discouraging the supplying of jets as military aid. In early 2024, he wrote that NATO was growing reckless in the conflict, as the war reached a "predictable stalemate". Jenkins has been criticised for his opinions on Ukraine by some journalists and commentators, including
Mark Laity. In May 2024, following the
local elections, he wrote calling
metro mayors a "farce of local democracy" and advocating their abolition.
Books Jenkins has written several books on the
politics,
history and
architecture of England, including ''England's Thousand Best Churches
and England's Thousand Best Houses''. In 2022, Jenkins's book,
The Celts: A Sceptical History, stoked some controversy on account of his incredulous view of the
Celts as a distinct cultural entity. The release of the work was met with a number of hostile reviews from specialists in Celtic studies, with these critics of the book alleging factual errors in the work as well as of the misrepresentation of sources.
Public appointments Jenkins served on the boards of
British Rail 1979–1990 and has also sat on the board of trustees of
The Architecture Foundation. From 1985 to 1990, he was deputy chairman of
English Heritage. He remained in the post until November 2014. ==Personal life and honours==