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Alex Renton

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The Honourable
Alex Renton
FRHistS
Born
Alexander James Torr Renton

Toronto, Canada
NationalityUK/Canada
Education
Alma materUniversity of Exeter
Occupation(s)Writer and broadcaster
Known forInvestigative journalism, history
Notable workBlood Legacy: Reckoning With a Family's Story of Slavery (2021)[1]
Parents
Websitealexrenton.com

Alexander James Torr Renton FRHistS is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the author of several historical and investigative books, including Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class (2017) and Blood Legacy: Reckoning With a Family's Story of Slavery (2021).

Early life and education

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Alexander James Torr Renton was born in Toronto, Canada, the oldest child of the politician Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry and the novelist and historian Alice Blanche Helen Fergusson.[2][better source needed]

He was educated at Ashdown House, East Sussex; Eton College;[3] Brighton College;[4] and the University of Exeter, where he studied English.[5] Since 2024, Renton has been a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University.

Career

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As a journalist Renton has held staff jobs as a reporter and editor on British newspapers The Independent and the London Evening Standard. He has been a columnist for The Times and a Scotland-based correspondent for Newsweek magazine. He has won awards for foreign reporting, investigative journalism and food writing.[6] He worked in Asia for Oxfam from 2001 to 2004. There he began writing about food cultures, poverty and food policy.[7]

Drawing on his own experience at three British boarding schools, Renton was presenter and reporter on a 2018 episode of the ITV current affairs programme Exposure titled "Boarding Schools, the Secret Shame".[8][9] In 2022, he co-wrote (with Caitlin Smith) and presented a BBC Radio 4 series, In Dark Corners, about abuse and cover-up at some of Britain's elite schools, including Eton College, Fettes College, Gordonstoun and its junior school.[10][11]

According to The Guardian in July 2022, since realising in 2013 that the teachers who abused him could still be abusing children, Renton started to speak out about the abuse he suffered, and to support other victims with a book, articles, and radio and television programmes. He has said that many prestigious schools go to great lengths to protect their reputation rather than victims. Renton has said that boarding schools are "simply unsafe" until the law on safeguarding in residential institutions for the vulnerable is overhauled, and that his is the first in about seven generations of his family not to send their children to boarding school.[11]

Awards

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Renton's book Blood Legacy, an account of his ancestors' involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and plantation slavery in the Caribbean, was long-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction in 2021.[12][13] It was also short-listed for the History Prize in the Saltire Society's literary awards, known as Scotland's National Book Awards,[14][15][16] and British Academy Book Prize in 2022.[17]

The BBC Radio 4 series In Dark Corners[18] produced by BBC Scotland[19] and presented and co-written by Renton, won the British Broadcasting Press Guild's Radio Programme of the Year award in 2023.[20][21] In Dark Corners won best series and a further award at the 2023 Arias, the Radio Academy awards.[22]

Other activities

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In April 2023 he co-founded, with former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan and others, Heirs of Slavery, a group of descendants of people who had profited from British transatlantic slavery and wanted to make amends in the form of reparations. Other members include Charles Gladstone, who is descended from prime minister William Gladstone, and David Lascelles, 8th Earl of Harewood.[23] The group has called on the British Prime Minister and King Charles to make a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom.[24]

Selected publications

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Renton is the author of several historical and investigative books, including:

  • Planet Carnivore: Why Cheap Meat Costs the Earth (2014), ISBN 9781536643381
  • Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class (2017), ISBN 9781474600545[25]
  • Blood Legacy: Reckoning With a Family's Story of Slavery (2021), ISBN 9781786898869[26]
  • 13 Foods that Shape Our World (2022), ISBN 9781785947384

Personal life

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Renton married the journalist Ruth Valerie Burnett in 2002.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ "Blood Legacy: Reckoning With a Family's Story of Slavery". Canongate Books. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Hon. Alexander James Torr Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry". geni.com. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  3. ^ Ward, Stephen (2018). "Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, crimes and schooling of a ruling class by Alex Renton". Educationalfutures. 9 (1). British Education Studies Association. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Sussex aid worker fears for refugees". Brighton Argus. 22 March 2003.
  5. ^ Cunningham, John (4 July 2001). "On the campaign trail | Alex Renton, compassionate 'hack' joining Oxfam". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Fergusson, James (25 April 2017). "Stiff Upper Lip review: A book that asks 'powerful questions that parents can't ignore'". Country Life. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  7. ^ Wilson, Bee (20 March 2014). "How much meat is too much?". London Review of Books. 36 (6 ed.). Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  8. ^ "Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame". Exposure. ITV Hub. 19 February 2018. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018.
  9. ^ Hogan, Michael (19 February 2018). "Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame – Exposure review: a raw and emotional exploration of systematic failure of abuse victims". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  10. ^ In Dark Corners. BBC Radio 4 (Audio). July 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  11. ^ a b Hill, Amelia (27 July 2022). "Alex Renton: the abuse survivor still shining light on 'vicious' elite schools". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  12. ^ Flood, Alison (9 September 2021). "Britain's imperial legacy in spotlight of Baillie Gifford non-fiction prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  13. ^ "Blood Legacy by Alex Renton". Baillie Gifford Prize. 5 January 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Saltire Society Scotland's National Book Awards 2022 shortlist announced". History Scotland. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  15. ^ "The 2022 Shortlists For Scotland's National Book Awards Announced". The Saltire Society. 6 April 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  16. ^ Comerford, Ruth (14 November 2022). "2022 Saltire Literary Awards shortlists unveiled". The Bookseller. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  17. ^ "Awards". Alex Renton. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  18. ^ In Dark Corners. BBC Radio 4 (Audio). July 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  19. ^ "2023 Awards". Broadcasting Press Guild. 25 March 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  20. ^ "BPG Awards sees eight BBC Local Radio presenters honoured". RadioToday. 25 March 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  21. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (24 March 2023). "'Derry Girls,' 'This is Going to Hurt,' 'The Traitors' Take Top Honors at U.K. Broadcasting Press Guild Awards". Variety. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  22. ^ "'Arias 2023 Winners,' 'The Traitors' Take Top Honors at U.K. Broadcasting Press Guild Awards". Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  23. ^ "About Us". Heirs of Slavery. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  24. ^ Baker, Nick (11 May 2023). "These British 'heirs of slavery' are trying to make amends for past wrongs". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  25. ^ Andrew, Anthony (10 April 2017). "Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class". Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  26. ^ Andrew, Anthony (23 May 2021). "Blood Legacy by Alex Renton review – family fortunes built on brutality". The Observer. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
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