Barbara Amiel
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| The Right Honourable The Baroness Black of Crossharbour |
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Baroness Black of Crossharbour
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| Born | December 4, 1940 Watford, Hertfordshire, England |
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| Nationality | British |
| Spouse | Gary Smith (1964-1964) George Jonas (1974-1979) David Graham (1984-1988) Conrad Black (1992- present) |
| Residence | Toronto, Canada and Palm Beach, Florida |
| Occupation | Writer, columnist, Socialite |
| Religion | Jewish |
Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour (born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on December 4, 1940), is a British-Canadian journalist, writer, and socialite. She is also the wife of former media baron Conrad Black
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[edit] Early life
Amiel was born into a Jewish family in 1940. Her parents divorced when she was eight, after her father, Harold, left her mother for another woman. Her mother subsequently remarried and in November, 1952 the couple emigrated with Barbara, her sister and half-brother, to Hamilton, Ontario. Her father later committed suicide in 1956.
While in England, Amiel attended North London Collegiate School in Canons Park, Edgware, Greater London, an independent girls' school founded by Frances Mary Buss in 1850. Family difficulties--including some financial hardship---during the early years in Canada, precipitated her living independently for periods of time during her adolescence during which she held a variety of jobs to support herself. In 1959 she entered the University of Toronto, where she attended University College and took an honours degree in Philosophy & English. Amiel was an active communist, and was a delegate in 1962 to the Soviet-organised World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki, Finland.[1]
[edit] Married life
Amiel entered a brief marriage to Gary Smith in 1964 when she was 23 years old. She was married a second time to poet, broadcaster and author George Jonas from 1974 to 1979. A third marriage was to cable businessman David Graham in 1984, but they were divorced by 1988.
In July 1992, she married Conrad Black (who was granted, in 2001, a life peerage as Lord Black of Crossharbour), a Canadian-British author and media baron who was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007. Amiel stood by her husband throughout the lengthy trial, and published some of her observations in her regular column for Maclean's Magazine.
[edit] Career in journalism
Amiel has been a longtime columnist for Maclean's magazine (1977-present) noted for her right wing political views. In the late 1960s Amiel was a story editor and on-camera presence for CBC TV Public Affairs. In the 1970s she was intermittently on contract with both CTV and TV Ontario. By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter (1978), which she co-authored with Jonas, won The Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime book. She was subsequently a columnist for the Toronto Sun in the 1980s and 1990s, also serving as the daily's editor from 1983 until 1985 (making her the first female to edit a daily metropolitan newspaper in Canada) before returning to Britain.
From 1986 to 1994, Amiel was a columnist for The Times and The Sunday Times. In 1994, she moved to her husband Conrad Black's Daily Telegraph. She has also served as vice-president, editorial of Hollinger.
Amiel is known for having strong opinions about what she sees as the acceptance of antisemitism in some circles. She has also been criticized for writing articles that portray Arabs in an allegedly racist fashion. In December 2001, she caused a furore by reporting, in The Spectator, remarks by the then-French ambassador to the UK, Daniel Bernard, who described Israel as "that shitty little country."[2]
In 2003, she attacked BBC current affairs coverage, claiming that it has been seen as a 'bad joke' for decades. Amiel lost her position as a columnist on the Daily Telegraph in mid-2004 after civil suits were exchanged between her husband and The Telegraph's parent company in the wake of a corporate battle which led to criminal charges being laid against her husband in late 2005 and a trial in Chicago in 2007. In 2005, she rejoined Maclean's as a columnist under its new editor, Kenneth Whyte.
A dual biography by Tom Bower, Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge,[3] featuring an unflattering portrayal of Amiel, was published in November 2006. The book has been denounced by Black in The Daily Telegraph and Black filed a suit in Canada against its author.[4]
[edit] Conrad Black's Fraud Trial
Amiel's fourth husband, Lord Conrad Black of Crossharhour, was convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice on July 13, 2007. Amiel was with him every day of the trial since its beginning in March 2007. Lord Black was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in December 2007. He reported to Coleman Correctional Facility on March 3, 2008. Amiel is expected to return to their home on the Bridle Path in Toronto, Canada and come back and forth between trips visiting her incarcerated husband. Lord Black is appealing his convictions and if they succeed he will be released in June 2008.
[edit] Publications
- By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter, 1977, George Jonas with Barbara Amiel. (Jonas and Amiel were married at the time.)
- Confessions, 1980, by Barbara Amiel, Toronto, Canada: Macmillan of Canada (ISBN 0-7705-1841-9)
- Celebrate Our City ... Toronto ... 150th Anniversary, 1983, Barbara Amiel and Lorraine Monk, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (ISBN 0-7710-6085-8)
- EAST AND WEST: Selected Poems. With a profile of the poet by Barbara Amiel, by George Faludy and Barbara Amiel, 1978, Toronto: Hounslow Press.
