26 Facts About Harold Evans

Sir Harold Matthew Evans was a British-American journalist and writer.

Harold Evans wrote books on history and journalism, such as The American Century.

Harold Evans, the eldest of four sons, was born at 39 Renshaw Street, Patricroft, Eccles, to Welsh parents, Frederick and Mary Harold Evans, whom he described in his 2009 memoir as "the self-consciously respectable working class".

Harold Evans's father was an engine driver, while his mother ran a shop in their front room to enable the family to buy a car.

Harold Evans began his career as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, at 16.

Harold Evans entered University College, Durham University, after contacting every one of the fourteen universities in Great Britain at the time.

Harold Evans was appointed editor of a regional daily, The Northern Echo, in 1961.

In 1966, Harold Evans moved to London to become assistant to the editor of The Sunday Times.

Harold Evans recommended Evans to the board as the next editor of The Sunday Times.

Harold Evans organized a campaign by the newspaper's Insight investigative team, appointing Phillip Knightley to run the investigation.

Harold Evans took on the drug companies responsible for the manufacture of thalidomide, pursuing them through the English courts and eventually gaining victory in the European Court of Human Rights in 1979.

The British government attempted in 1974 to prevent Harold Evans from publishing extracts from the diaries of former Labour cabinet minister Richard Crossman, shortly after Crossman had died and ahead of the diaries publication in book form.

Harold Evans risked prosecution under the Official Secrets Act 1911 for breaking the thirty-year rule preventing disclosures of government business.

Harold Evans remained with the paper only a year, during which time The Times was critical of Margaret Thatcher.

In March 1982, a group of Times journalists called for Harold Evans to resign, despite the paper's increase in circulation, claiming that he had overseen an "erosion of editorial standards".

Harold Evans resigned shortly afterwards, citing policy differences with Murdoch relating to editorial independence.

Harold Evans included an account of the episode in his book Good Times, Bad Times.

On leaving The Times, Harold Evans became director of Goldcrest Films and Television.

In 1984, Harold Evans moved to the United States, where he taught at Duke University in North Carolina and Yale University.

Harold Evans was appointed president and publisher of Random House from 1990 to 1997.

Harold Evans acquired rights for $40,000 to the memoir, Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, then at the start of his political career.

In 1953, Harold Evans married fellow Durham graduate Enid Parker, with whom he had a son and two daughters; the marriage was dissolved in 1978.

The couple remained on good terms; Enid Harold Evans died in 2013.

In 1973, Harold Evans met Tina Brown, a journalist 25 years his junior.

Harold Evans died in New York City on 23 September 2020 at the age of 92.

Harold Evans's death was reported by his family and the cause of death given as congestive heart failure.