16.5.09

Hard-rocking artsy diatoms

Haekel Swarm from Simon Jenkins

I first heard of Jenkins from his articles in Guardians, and I remember his cynical statement criticizing a few modernist architects as ‘the worst offenders because they became the most powerful’ in the article responded to the 2006 exhibition on modernist art at the V&A. Surprisingly he is fascinated by diatoms, too. That's probably why he hates modernists so much?

Simon Jenkins is a journalist and author. He writes a column twice weekly for the Guardian and weekly for the Sunday Times, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. Previously he wrote columns for the Times and the London Evening Standard, both of which newspapers he edited.

His career began on Country Life magazine and continued on the Times Educational Supplement, the Economist (political editor) and the Sunday Times (books editor). He served on the board of British Rail and London Transport in the 80s and was deputy chairman of English Heritage and a Millennium commissioner. He was Journalist of the Year in 1988 and Columnist of the Year in 1993.

His books include works on London architecture, the press and politics and, more recently, England's Thousand Best Churches (1999) and Thousand Best Houses (2003).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2008/apr/22/simon.jenkins