John Simpson

John Cody Fidler-Simpson CBE (born 9 August 1944) is an English foreign correspondent. He is world affairs editor of BBC News. He has spent all his working life at the corporation. He has reported from more than 120 countries, including thirty war zones, and has interviewed many world leaders. Simpson was born in Cleveleys, Lancashire; his family later moved to Dunwich, Suffolk. His great grandfather was Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Sa... more

John Cody Fidler-Simpson CBE (born 9 August 1944) is an English foreign correspondent. He is world affairs editor of BBC News. He has spent all his working life at the corporation. He has reported from more than 120 countries, including thirty war zones, and has interviewed many world leaders. Simpson was born in Cleveleys, Lancashire; his family later moved to Dunwich, Suffolk. His great grandfather was Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody), an American showman in the style of Buffalo Bill Cody, who became a British citizen and was an early pioneer of manned flight in the UK. Simpson reveals in his autobiography that his father was an anarchist. Simpson was educated at three independent schools, latterly Dulwich College Preparatory School in Dulwich, South London, and at St Paul's School in Barnes, West London, followed by Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge, where he read English and was editor of Granta magazine. In 1965 he was a member of the... less