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Alex Renton

Headshot of Alex Renton

Alex Renton is a journalist, broadcaster and author. His latest book is Blood Legacy: Reckoning With a Family’s Story of Slavery

October 2024

  • Easter Sunday - Easter 2023<br>The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivers his sermon as he leads the Easter Sung Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent. Picture date: Sunday April 9, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story RELIGION Archbishop. Photo credit should read: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

    double quotation markTo my distant cousin Justin Welby: our family’s slavery history is truly awful. Let’s be open about it

    Alex Renton
    The archbishop has admitted his connections, but must go further. Backing the campaign for reparations would be a start, says author Alex Renton

November 2023

  • Iain Wares

    ‘Jimmy Savile mark II’: why was an alleged child abuser able to move from school to school?

    Hundreds of children are thought to have been abused at Edinburgh Academy and other Scottish schools. One name stands out among the accused: 84-year-old Iain Wares, who spent more than 40 years as a teacher. How did he enjoy such a long and untroubled career?

September 2023

  • Antoinette Sandbach, pictured in Downing Street in 2019, has threatened to sue Cambridge University over the research into her ancestor.

    double quotation markAntoinette Sandbach’s relatives owned slaves – and so did mine. We have to atone for that as best we can

    Alex Renton
    The former MP’s quest to break the public link with her ancestors is misguided. Better to accept our legacy and work for change, says author and broadcaster Alex Renton

April 2023

  • BRITISH GUIANA: SLAVERY. /n'Le Resouvenir,' a coffee plantation in British Guiana (now Guyana). Reverend John Smith's mission is on the right. In 1823, Quamina, a slave and deacon, lead an uprising that spread to several other plantations. Line engraving,<br>FFCR07 BRITISH GUIANA: SLAVERY. /n'Le Resouvenir,' a coffee plantation in British Guiana (now Guyana). Reverend John Smith's mission is on the right. In 1823, Quamina, a slave and deacon, lead an uprising that spread to several other plantations. Line engraving,

    double quotation markMy ancestors profited from slavery. Here’s how I am starting to atone for that

    Alex Renton
    Families like mine have listened to the descendants of enslaved people. Today we launch a lobbying group, Heirs of Slavery, says author and campaigner Alex Renton

February 2023

  • Engraving of a sugar plantation in Jamaica in the 1880s. From an original engraving in the Girl's Own Paper magazine 1883.<br>MMHNW1 Engraving of a sugar plantation in Jamaica in the 1880s. From an original engraving in the Girl's Own Paper magazine 1883.

    double quotation markWe whose ancestors owned slaves want to make amends – but nations must also pay their due

    Alex Renton
    My family owned plantations, but how my generation atones can only ever be a start, says author and campaigner Alex Renton

October 2022

  • Gordonstoun school in Elgin

    Former pupils win £500,000 over abuse claims at Scottish boarding school

    Insurer makes out-of-court settlement for alleged attacks by teachers in the 1990s

April 2021

  • Alex Renton and extended family foraging on Tiree.

    Mussel memory: I loved picking them in Scotland as a boy – here’s my recipe

    Seafood foraging and sunburned suppers remind me of holidays on Tiree – and the are inspiration for this Iberian pasta dish

April 2020

  • Man and five small children with spades and nets

    Postcard from the future: Tiree, Scotland, my ‘dream of an island’

    My family has been visiting this sunny Inner Hebrides isle for more than a century, but for now I can enjoy its peace and ease only in my mind

October 2019

  • Sandwiches being distributed at a lodging house for the homeless in Berlin, circa 1920.

    Food Or War by Julian Cribb review – a stark choice and a bleak outlook

    The science writer’s warnings of global hunger are compelling and his solutions are intriguing, if naive

July 2018

  • Pupils watching the Eton wall game in progress.

    Posh Boys: How the English Public Schools Ruin Britain – review

    Robert Verkaik comprehensively illustrates the toxic stranglehold the public school system has on Britain

April 2017

  • Predatory … Captain Grimes (Douglas Hodge) with Paul Pennyfeather (Jack Whitehall) in the BBC’s Decline and Fall.

    Rereading
    School of hard knocks: the dark underside to boarding school books

    Violence, cruelty and sexual confusion are as much a part of boarding school literature as japes and cricket. Alex Renton surveys a troubled genre from Kipling to Rowling

December 2016

  • Illustration for Alex Renton piece

    double quotation markI saw it in schools; now football is the focus. The pain is the same

    Alex Renton
    Allegations of sex crimes against young footballers continue to emerge. For two years, the author has heard harrowing accounts from hundreds of victims of sex abuse in schools and finds many disquieting parallels

March 2016

  • Glasses of fizzy drinks surrounded by sugar cubes

    double quotation markThe sugar tax is a great idea. Why not go after processed foods too?

    Alex Renton
    At long last, there is a plan to improve children’s health, but it must be the start of a more widespread campaign

November 2015

  • Still life of fresh carrot on top of fork

    What is healthy eating?

    From gluten free to paleo, hardly a day goes by without some faddish diet making the news. But what is the truth? Alex Renton reports

June 2015

  • Gordonstoun School

    Boarding school abuse
    Police files on child sex abuse at Gordonstoun school have vanished

  • boarding school syndrome

    Book of the day
    Boarding School Syndrome review – education and the pain of separation

May 2015

  • happy faces

    What would you pay to be happy?

    The source of our happiness is closer than ever to being located, measured and commodified. Alex Renton meets the ‘psychoeconomists’ and asks, have they created a monster?

April 2015

  • John standing outside his parents' house

    Boarding school abuse
    Rape, child abuse and Prince Charles’s former school

  • Gordonstoun School, Scotland,

    Boarding school abuse
    Gordonstoun junior school linked to child sex abuse allegations

March 2015

  • Cod fishing off the coast of Norway, in the Arctic circle

    Word of Mouth blog
    Extreme cod feasting – as only the Norwegians know how

    The Barents Sea is home to the ‘wanderer cod’. Our writer helps to catch and sample a fish that’s hard to beat for freshness, taste and health-boosting vitamin D
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