Martin Wainwright MBE is a British journalist and author. He left ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' after 37 years at the end of March 2013.

Early life

Wainwright was born in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, and educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and

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 ...

. His father Richard Wainwright was the Liberal MP for

Colne Valley The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield. ...

(1966–70, February 1974–87) after a career in accountancy.

Career

Wainwright was ''

'''s Northern Editor for 17 years until the end of 2012, when he was succeeded by

Helen Pidd Helen Pidd (born 1981) is a British journalist who is a news writer for ''The Guardian'', succeeding Martin Wainwright as the paper's Northern Editor, based in Manchester, in spring 2013. Early life and education Pidd was born in Hest Bank ...

. His contributions to the newspaper have mostly reflected this emphasis but not exclusively. Wainwright has written several books on northern or countryside topics, including a biography of the unrelated

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

and a guide to the

Coast to Coast Walk The Coast to Coast Walk is a long-distance footpath between the west and east coasts of Northern England, nominally long. Devised by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District National Park, ...

. He has also written books on the

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is an economy car produced by British marque Morris Motors between 1948 and 1971. It made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 ...

and

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

cars. He writes a blog about another interest,

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s. Wainwright was awarded an MBE in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

, "For services to the

National Lottery Charities Board The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for " good causes". It is the largest community funder in the UK and ...

in Yorkshire and Humberside." He was awarded an honorary degree by the

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 ...

in 2013.

Personal life

Wainwright is chair of the trustees of the Scurrah Wainwright Charity, named after his grandfather Henry Scurrah Wainwright OBE (1877–1968), a Leeds chartered accountant with interests in social reform and

delphinium ''Delphinium'' is a genus of about 300 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family (biology), family Ranunculaceae, native species, native throughout the Northern Hemisphere and also on the high mountains of tropical Africa. T ...

s, and a trustee of the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust, named for his brother who died in 1974. One of Wainwright's two sisters, Hilary, is the radical academic who has long been associated with the '' Red Pepper'' magazine. His two sons are both journalists –

Oliver Oliver may refer to: Arts, entertainment and literature Books * ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry * ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens Fictional characters * Ariadne Oliver ...

is ''The Guardian''s architecture and design critic and Tom is the ''

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

''s Mexico City bureau chief.Tom Wainwright at economist.com
/ref>

Selected publications

*''Wainwright: the Man Who Loved the Lakes'', 2007,

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Consumer Publishing and BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidia ...

, *''Guardian Book of the Countryside'' (By Ruth Petrie & Martin Wainwright), 2008, Cornerstone, *''A Mini Adventure: 50 years of the iconic small car'', 2009, Aurum Press, *''True North'' 2009,

Guardian Books Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'', and formerly ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the fin ...

, *''Morris Minor; the Biography: sixty years of Britain's favourite car'' 2010,

Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...

, *''The Coast to Coast Walk'' (Recreational Path Guides), 2010 (revised ed), Aurum Press, *''Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife'', 25 May 2011, Aurum Press,

References

External links

* Listing of published articles Alumni of the University of Oxford English male journalists English male non-fiction writers English newspaper editors English non-fiction writers Living people People educated at Shrewsbury School The Guardian journalists Writers from Leeds Year of birth missing (living people) Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{UK-writer-stub