Iain Dale Popular Books

Iain Dale Biography & Facts

Iain Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. He was the publisher of the Total Politics magazine between 2008 and 2012, and the managing director of Biteback Publishing until May 2018. Since September 2010, he has hosted a regular discussion show on the radio station LBC. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in both 2013 and 2016. Early life and education Dale was born in Cambridge and grew up in Essex, where he attended Ashdon County Primary School and Saffron Walden County High School. After a gap year in which he worked as a nursing assistant at the Werner Wicker Klinik in West Germany, he read German, linguistics and teaching English as a foreign language at the University of East Anglia; his course included a year in which he taught English at the gymnasium in Besigheim. He was awarded an upper second class honours BA in 1985. Career Early career Dale was a research assistant to the Conservative Member of Parliament Patrick Thompson (1985–87), the public affairs manager for the British Ports Federation (1987–89), a financial journalist with Lloyd's List (1989–90) and then the deputy managing director of the Waterfront Partnership and the managing director of the Waterfront Conference Company (1990–96). Writing career Dale wrote a fortnightly column for The Daily Telegraph from 2007 to 2009. He has also written for The Guardian, The Independent, GQ, The Spectator, Attitude and the New Statesman. Between 2006 and 2013, Dale wrote a weekly diary column for the Eastern Daily Press. In December 2018, it was announced that he would contribute a new weekly column to both the Eastern Daily Press and its Archant stablemate, the East Anglian Daily Times. Dale has written or edited 46 political books. This includes co-authoring, in May 2006, a book with fellow blogger Paul Staines (responsible for the Guido Fawkes website) about alleged instances of sleaze from the Labour government since it took office in 1997. A second edition was published in June 2007. Dale has written histories of West Ham United and Norwich City football clubs for Haynes Publishing, and in 2015, wrote a book called The NHS: Things That Need to be Said for Elliott & Thompson. His most recent book was co-edited by the former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, and is a collection of biographical essays of every female MP elected to the House of Commons since 1918 entitled Honourable Ladies. A second volume was published in 2019. Broadcasting career Dale got his break in radio on BBC Radio 5 Live, where he was the regular cover for Andrew Pierce on Sunday Service with Fi Glover and Charlie Whelan. He presented a documentary on how the BBC covers general election results, Counting Chickens on the night of the 2001 general election, 7 June 2001. He also presented BBC Radio Four's The Westminster Hour, People & Politics on the BBC World Service and a number of episodes of What the Papers Say between 2010 and 2016. Dale was a stand-in presenter for the London radio station LBC 97.3 during the first nine months of 2010 after doing a couple of test programmes with other journalists. With Gaby Hinsliff, he co-presented LBC's six-hour election night programme on 7 May 2010. In May and June 2010, he presented the Petrie Hosken, Clive Bull, James Max and Jeni Barnett phone-in shows, and on 22 June 2010 fronted LBC's budget coverage. In late July 2010, Dale started a six-week stint on LBC covering for Petrie Hosken and Andrew Pierce, which later turned into a regular show. Dale was the weekly evening presenter on LBC from 7 to 10 pm until March 2013, when Clive Bull took over. Dale instead replaced broadcaster James Whale as the presenter of the Drivetime show between 4 pm and 7 pm Monday to Friday. He continued to present the station's Sunday Politics show between 10 am and 1 pm each weekend for a further few weeks in March 2013 until Andrew Gilligan took over. On 3 September 2018, LBC changed their autumn schedule: Dale moved to the evening show (7–10pm). Dale formerly presented Planet Politics on Oneword Radio. He was also the chief presenter on the failed internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. Dale was shortlisted for Speech Radio Programme of the Year at the 2013 Sony Radio Academy Awards, and then went on to win Radio Presenter of the Year at the 2013 and 2016 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards. He won a Silver Sony for Interview of the Year at the 2014 Sony Awards for his interview with James from Woolwich, who was an eyewitness to the murder of Lee Rigby. Dale currently co-hosts a weekly political and current affairs podcast, entitled For The Many, alongside Jacqui Smith. Dale has often appeared on television programmes such as Newsnight, The Andrew Marr Show, Jeremy Vine and Good Morning Britain. Blogging career Dale wrote a blog titled Iain Dale's Diary. It was nominated by The Guardian for the Political Blog of the Year Award in 2005. In July 2011, Dale started a collaborative blog site, Dale & Co, with many contributors from the political spectrum, including himself. He continues to author a blog entitled West Ham Till I Die, in which he writes on West Ham United. Dale writes a weekly diary column for the website ConservativeHome, where he also publishes his annual list of the '100 most influential people on the Right'. Other work In 1997, Dale opened Politico's Bookstore and Coffee House in Westminster, selling political books, memorabilia and novelty items. The shop spawned sister publishing and web design businesses that shared the Politico's brand. In 1998, he expanded his operation with the creation of a publishing division, Politico's Publishing, which he sold to Methuen Publishing in 2003. In 2004, he announced the closure of his bricks-and-mortar outlet and relocated his business to Kent as a mail-order operation. Later that year, Methuen re-opened his former premises as the Westminster Bookshop. In 2006, Dale sold his Politico's Bookstore business to Harriman House. In 2012, he relaunched Politico's online as part of his Biteback Publishing business. He was also the publisher of Total Politics magazine from June 2008 until its sale to Dods (Group) PLC in December 2012. Political career In May 2005, Dale stood in the general election as the Conservative candidate for North Norfolk, losing to the Liberal Democrat incumbent, Norman Lamb. Subsequently, Dale acted as the chief of staff to the losing leadership candidate David Davis in the run-up to the 2005 Conservative Party leadership campaign. In August 2006, it was confirmed that Dale had been added to the Conservative A-List of candidates to fight the next general election. He unsuccessfully applied for the Conservative candidacy for the safe seat Maidstone and The Weald. In October 2009, Dale ran for selection for the Conservative safe seat of Bracknell in order.... Discover the Iain Dale popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Iain Dale books.

Best Seller Iain Dale Books of 2024

  • The Blogfather synopsis, comments

    The Blogfather

    Iain Dale

    "Iain Dale's Diary caught the beginning of the great blog wave and rode it until Twitter became the dominant form of digital communication. Dale was key in transforming Bri...

  • Defeating the Dictators synopsis, comments

    Defeating the Dictators

    Charles Dunst

    ' Charles Dunst's deeply researched, timely and powerful book offers a blueprint for how democracies should fight back.' Sir Kim Darroch'Remarkable. A thoughtful and perceptive bo...

  • Poles Apart synopsis, comments

    Poles Apart

    Alison Goldsworthy, Laura Osborne & Alexandra Chesterfield

    Why do people become divided?What steps can we all take to reduce hostility and bring about understanding?Poles Apart has the answers.In Poles Apart, an expert on polarisation, a b...