Keith Kyle (4 August 1925, Sturminster Newton,

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

– 21 February 2007, London) was a British writer, broadcaster and historian.

Early life

Kyle was educated at Bromsgrove School and Magdalen College,

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, where his period as an undergraduate was broken by war service.

Career

He worked for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

North American Service as a talks producer, succeeding

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

Jeremy Harding "Right, Left and Centre", ''London Review of Books'', 6 August 2009, p34 in 1951. In 1953, he joined ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' and was sent to Washington; later he was reporter for the BBC's '' Tonight'' programme from 1960, specialising in coverage of AfricaDavid Wedgwood Ben
"Keith Kyle"
''The Independent'', 13 March 2007 and based in Nairobi.
''Daily Telegraph'', 22 February 2007 He also contributed to ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' and ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' at this time, and covered

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

in the period before the Smith government's UDI. From the late 1960s, Kyle began an academic career, while remaining active as a journalist for some years. He was a Fellow of the John F Kennedy Institute of Politics at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

(1967–68) and joined

Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...

in 1972, where he remained for 30 years.Sandra Harri
"Obituary: Keith Kyle"
''The Guardian'', 27 February 2007 In the late 1980s, St Antony's College, Oxford invited him to become an associate member. His history, ''

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) first appeared in 1991, and is regarded as definitive in almost all the cited articles. His other books include ''The Politics of the Independence of Kenya'' (Macmillan) in 1999 and his posthumous autobiography ''Keith Kyle: Reporting the World'' appeared in June 2009, published by I.B.Tauris.

Parliamentary candidacies

Kyle had a chequered career as a parliamentary candidate. He had hoped to become a Conservative candidate in 1955, but government policy on Suez (→ Suez Crisis) dissuaded him. He was an unsuccessful Labour Party candidate in St Albans in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, for Braintree in both 1974 elections and was the Northampton South SDP candidate in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

References

British male journalists People educated at Bromsgrove School People from Sturminster Newton 1925 births 2007 deaths 20th-century English historians Chatham House people Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates 20th-century British military personnel Military personnel from Dorset {{England-writer-stub