Jonathan Fryer

Jonathan Fryer is a British writer, lecturer and broadcaster based in London, though he hails originally from Manchester. His birth name was Graeme Leslie Morton but that was changed when he was adopted into a business family in Eccles, as recounted in his memoir "Eccles Cakes". He left school before completing his sixth form studies to go to the Vietnam War as a freelance reporter for the Manchester Evening News. He studied Chinese and Japanese at Oxford University, later joining Reuters News Agency, which sent him to Brussels. On signing his first book contract (for "The Great Wall of China") he resigned from Reuters and has been freelance ever since, working mainly for the BBC, Middle Eastern television stations and London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's "From Our Own Correspondent", he has reported from or travelled in more than 160 countries round the globe. He has written a number of literary biographies and social histories, including a study of London's Soho in its heyday. For many years he has been active in the Liberal Democrat Party (previously the Liberal Party), notably standing several times for election to the European Parliament.