Andrew William Scott Billen (born 30 December 1957) is a British journalist, children's author, and staff feature writer on ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' newspaper.

Early life

Andrew Billen was born in London on 30 December 1957 and brought up in

Brentwood, Essex Brentwood is a town in Essex, England, in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt 20 miles (30 km) north-east of Charing Cross and close to the M25 motorway. The population of the built-up area was 55,340 in 2021. Brentwood is a t ...

. He attended Brentwood School from 1965 to 1977, which at the time was still a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

. He gained a BA in English from

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

in 1980.

Career

Billen started on newspapers at the ''

Sheffield Star ''The Star'', often known as the ''Sheffield Star'', is a daily newspaper published in Sheffield, England, from Monday to Saturday each week. Originally a broadsheet, the newspaper became a tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid in 1993. ''The Sta ...

'', a daily newspaper across

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

. From 1984 he was a writer on the Times Diary for ''The Times'' and became the paper's arts correspondent in 1988. In 1989 he moved to ''The Observer''. In 1997 he joined the London ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' as chief interviewer. He returned to ''The Times'' in 2002, where he wrote the weekly "The Andrew Billen Interview" for five years. He was the paper's main television reviewer from 2007 to 2017. For ten years up to 2007 he worked in a freelance capacity as the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''′s TV critic. He later became the magazine's theatre reviewer. In 2006 he won a prize at the ''

Press Gazette ''Press Gazette'', formerly known as ''UK Press Gazette'' (UKPG), is a British trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500 before becoming online-only in 2013. Published wit ...

''′s Magazine Design & Journalism Awards. In 2008 he was again critic of the year in the same awards. He has been shortlisted six times for interviewer of the year in the UK Press Awards, most recently in March 2021 when he was also shortlisted for feature writer of the year. In 2020 he was shortlisted as interviewer of the year in the British Journalism Awards. In 2022 he was presenter and reporter of a five-part Story of Our Times podcast, The Feud, about a dispute between Christ Church, Oxford and the college's dean, Martyn Percy.

Personal life

He is married and lives in Oxford with his wife, Lucy, and two daughters, Abby and Orla.

Publications

* ''Sam Johnson, The wonderful word doctor''. Short Books, London. * ''Who was Charles Dickens?'' Short Books, London, 2005. (republished in hardback on 5 November 2000 as ''The boy who invented Christmas'' (Short Books).)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billen, Andrew 1957 births Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English children's writers English television critics London Evening Standard people People educated at Brentwood School, Essex People from Brentwood, Essex The Times journalists Living people