Jonathan Shearer is a British media personality. He was the winner of the BBC television series ''

Castaway 2007 ''Castaway 2007'' is a follow-up to the BBC series ''Castaway 2000'' in which a group of people from the British public are "castaway" on a remote island. While in the 2000 series 36 men, women and children moved to a remote Scottish island for ...

''.

Biography

Shearer was born in Glasgow. He had started (but it is not certain he graduated) several degrees, having studied Chemical Engineering at

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, Philosophy and Law at

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

, Education at

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and Zoology at

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. For many years he lived an itinerant lifestyle in countries such as

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Nigeria, and is a skilled linguist, speaking

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, French and Spanish. Whilst having spent much time as a teacher, he also worked as a professional

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

barman A bartender (also known as a barkeep or barman or barmaid or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, b ...

, sewer digger, zoo-keeper, dog trainer,

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

officer, banker and

tarot card Tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play trick-taking ca ...

reader. He has taught rifle shooting to delinquents and carried out refuge work for the Lumholtz's tree kangaroo. He also considered becoming a monk, but admits that "the monks didn't want me." Shearer is currently resident in Beijing where he copy-edits for

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. It is a ...

. Shearer has been engaged at least five times.STAR IN LOVE TUG PAIN - The Sunday Mail
/ref> A self-confessed

loner A loner is a person described as not seeking out, actively avoiding, or failing to maintain interpersonal relationships. There are many potential causes for this solitude. Intentional causes include introversion, mysticism, spirituality, reli ...

, at the time of the program, Jonathan was living on the island of

Benbecula Benbecula ( ; or ) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a zone administered by ...

in Scotland, cleaning hotel rooms to support his poorly paid

ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

work for the

. He says: "I have a strong dislike for the kind of deeply earnest, green, touchy-feely idiots whom I suspect you are going to populate your island with." Jonathan made it to the grand final on 27 May and won ''Castaway 2007''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shearer, Jonathan 1965 births Living people Reality show winners Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Leeds