Wolmar, Christian

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WOLMAR, Christian

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Attended Warwick University.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Aurum Press, 25 Bedford Ave., London WC1B 3AT, England. E-mail—xian@pro-net.co.uk.

CAREER: Journalist. Affiliated with Shelter and Release charities; Independent, London, England, began as transportation correspondent, 1989, became Westminster correspondent; freelance writer and print and broadcast journalist, 1998—.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Nick Wates) Squatting: The Real Story, Bay Leaf Books (London, England), 1980.

(With Stewart Lansley and Sue Goss) Councils in Conflict: The Rise and Fall of the Municipal Left, Macmillan (Houndmills, England), 1989.

Points of View: Drugs, Hodder Wayland (London, England), 1990.

Points of View: Censorship, Hodder Wayland (London, England), 1990.

Drugs and Sport, Hodder Wayland (London, England), 1992.

The Great British Railway Disaster, Ian Allan Publishing (Surrey, England), 1996.

Unlocking the Gridlock: The Key to a New Transport Policy, Friends of the Earth (London, England), 1997.

Stagecoach: A Classic Rags-to-Riches Tale from the Frontiers of Capitalism, Texere Publishing (London, England), 1998.

Forgotten Children: The Secret Abuse Scandal in Children's Homes, Vision Paperbacks (London, England), 2000.

Broken Rails: How Privatisation Wrecked Britain's Railways, Aurum Press (London, England), 2001.

Down the Tube: The Battle for London's Underground, Aurum Press (London, England), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Independent, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Rail, and Public Finance.

SIDELIGHTS: British journalist Christian Wolmar, formerly of the Independent, is the author of several books about political and social issues facing Great Britain. His most common topic is Britain's transportation system, especially the disastrous state of its railways, but he has also written about drug addiction, child abuse, and local government.

In 1989 Wolmar and two coauthors published a book examining the tumultuous history of Britain's local government councils during the 1980s. During that period Wolmar was a journalist covering these councils and his coauthors, Stewart Lansley and Sue Goss, were members of two different councils; thus, the three are all well acquainted with the issues facing local government. The 1980s was a period of conflict between the Conservative government headed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and councils which were often dominated by liberal members of the opposition Labour party. The authors, who are all sympathetic to Labour, assemble a work considered "essential reading for those who want to know why" the Thatcherites so often defeated the Left where these councils were concerned, John Gyford declared in Public Administration.

Wolmar's books on the British transportation system include The Great British Railway Disaster, Unlocking the Gridlock: The Key to a New Transport Policy, Broken Rails: How Privatisation Wrecked Britain's Railways, and Down the Tube: The Battle for London's Underground. In these works Wolmar provides balanced histories of these problems and arguments for their solutions. In particular, his "consistent attention to nuance" in Broken Rails "deserves the highest praise," wrote New Statesman contributor George Lucas, who noted that Wolmar is careful to include studies that contradict his conclusions in his analysis. Adrian Vaughan also praised Broken Rails, saying that Wolmar's "devastatingly detailed account" is "clearly, accurately and concisely written."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Community Care, January 4, 2001, Alison Taylor, review of Forgotten Children: The Secret Abuse Scandal in Children's Homes, p. 24.

Environment & Planning, November, 1990, S. Duncan, review of Councils in Conflict: The Rise and Fall of the Municipal Left, pp. 1551-1552.

Journal of Social Welfare Law, September, 1982, Rosalind Niblett, review of Squatting: The Real Story, pp. 318-319.

London Review of Books, January 7, 1999, Paul Foot, review of Stagecoach: A Classic Rags-to-Riches Tale from the Frontiers of Capitalism, p. 34.

New Statesman, August 29, 1997, review of Unlocking the Gridlock: The Key to a New Transport Policy, p. 7; October 29, 2001, George Lucas, review of Broken Rails: How Privatisation Wrecked Britain's Railways, pp. 53-54.

Parliamentary Affairs, July, 1990, Howard Elcock, review of Councils in Conflict, pp. 384-388.

Political Studies, September, 1990, William Hampton, review of Councils in Conflict, p. 552.

Public Administration, autumn, 1990, John Gyford, review of Councils in Conflict, p. 402.

School Librarian, August, 1990, Carol Woolley, review of Points of View: Drugs, pp. 123-124; August, 1992, Mary J. Neale, review of Drugs and Sport, p. 116.

Times Educational Supplement, January 12, 1990, George Jones, review of Councils in Conflict, p. 32; November 9, 1990, Laurence Alster, review of Points of View: Drugs, p. R8; December 11, 1992, Alan Beattie, review of Drugs and Sport, p. 34; December 8, 2000, Gerald Haigh, review of Forgotten Children, p. S23.

Times Literary Supplement, April 12, 2002, Adrian Vaughan, review of Broken Rails, p. 28.