CHRISTOPHER LONG ...
Journalist, Editor & Foreign Correspondent
Curriculum Vitae
Former member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists (London).
For copyright reasons the selection of print and broadcast items linked to this and other pages is severely limited.
. . . is a British journalist, editor and broadcaster. Born and educated in England, he read Law (tort, crime, contract and land) at the Inner Temple, London. He then trained and worked in marketing management in the UK and overseas before becoming a journalist.
In 1978-83 he was a reporter for the London Newspaper Group and a specialist in London news and current affairs. He was also a feature writer and diarist (e.g. London Evening Standard), columnist and leader writer for several newspapers and magazines (e.g. London Portrait Magazine) and an editor of newspapers and books, as well as an occasional radio broadcaster (e.g. LBC, BBC).
From 1987 to 1990 he was the founding editor of the award-winning World Magazine and of The Music Magazine, both later acquired by the BBC.
From 1991-99 he was one of the longest-serving war correspondents in the Balkans for British and overseas press (e.g. London Evening Standard), radio (e.g. Reuters, BBC and BBC World Service) and television (e.g. B-Sky-B and Channel 4/ITN), reporting from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Macedonia/Kosovo. In 1992-93 he was an investigative reporter for The Observer (London).
In 1994-95, as a member of the Internet Developers' Association, he was one of the first web site developers, with a particular interest in 'news on demand'. He continues to design and edit web content.
In 2001 he settled in France where he remains a journalist and editor of web content, as well as working as an independent French/English interpreter for museums, associations, web sites, businesses and lawyers (see links below). In his spare time he breeds pedigree Dorset Down sheep on five hectares of grassland in Normandy (see Elevage Dorset).
2012
- On behalf of Les Amis du Pont Bailey, took formal ownership of a 22-tonne World War ll 'Whale' element of a floating roadway from the British Mulberry B harbour at Arromanches. This 'bridge', a gift from LTP Loisel, will be lent to the town of Vire for 99 years to provide a bridge over the river Vire at Martilly (14) for walkers and cyclists on the Carentan to Mont-Saint-Michel trail.
2011
- Organised the reception of five members of Cornwall's Mount's Bay Pilot Gig Club in Normandy on a research trip prior to their 2012 M2M bid to row across the English Channel from the Mont-Saint-Michel to St Michael's Mount. The team arrived on cycles having travelled 270 miles in 18.5 hours as a team-building exercise.
- Gave an illustrated talk at the Musée du Bocage Normand, Saint Lô, on Paysans de Normandie, Paysans du Monde mais pas Paysans Anglais.
- Invited by the historian David Nicolas-Méry to co-author a bilingual book, aimed at a popular readership, on the Anglo-Norman experience, from antiquity to the present day.
- Contributed to a conference on Operation Bluecoat (Battle of Normandy 1944) organised by the Musée de la Percée du Bocage, Saint-Martin-des-Besaces.
- Gave a talk about the work of war correspondents to two separate groups of students at the Collège Emile Maupas, Vire (June).
- Organised a number of educational visits and field studies at Le Bosquet/Boquet, Pont-Farcy (linked to flora & fauna, rural life in the past, hedging practices, ornithology, or traditional local building methods) including:
- Twenty-six children from the Écoles Maternelle et Primaire, Pont-Farcy exploring how birds and mammals survive winter in Normandy (December)
- Eight students from the Lycée Agricole de Thère, St Lô – small scale sheep breeding and management (April)
- Two groups of about 30 children from the Écoles Maternelle et Primaire, Landelles-et-Coupigny – flora and fauna; agricultural life 100 years ago (May)
- Les Amis des Musées de St Lô — Le Bosquet Ornithological Visit (J. Collette) — (2011)
- Les Amis des Musées de St Lô — Le Bosquet Vernacular Structures (C. A. Long) — (2011)
- Fifteen students from Espace Locale d'Activités Novatrices (ELAN) – construction and restoration of clay wall structures (May)
- Twenty older children from the Écoles Maternelle et Primaire, Pont-Farcy – agricultural life 100 years ago (June)
- Younger children from the Écoles Maternelle et Primaire, Pont-Farcy – flora and fauna (June).
- Four Macedonian and five French adult students – a week-long course learning the building, restoration and finishing techniques involved in traditional Norman clay wall constructions (July).
- Presented a collection of early C20th marriage photographs (from Pont-Farcy, St Vigor-des-Monts and Landelles-et-Coupigny) at the Club Photo de Pont-Farcy.
- Began preparatory planning and facilitating in Normandy for the Mount's Bay Pilot Gig Club (Cornwall) bid, in 2012, to row non-stop across the Channel from Mont-Saint-Michel to St Michael's Mount with a team of six oarsmen and a cox. (See also: 1 + 2)
- Began the progressive restoration of farm buildings at Le Boquet / Bosquet, Pont-Farcy, involving masonry and clay-cob repairs to the C15/16th house/barn, a communal bread oven, a calf shed, a pigsty/hen house and a cowshed.
2010
- Translated (Fr-Eng) Le Mont-Saint-Michel Sous l'Occupation 1940-1944 by Emmanuel Villain, including an introduction by Henry Decaëns, published January 2011.
- Succeeded in persuading Pont-Farcy's municipal council to publicly display its superb church clock in the church's south door entrance (unveiled in April 2011). It had been abandoned and neglected in the tower since the early 1960s (see article).
- Campaigned, in collaboration with the town of Vire in Calvados, for a WWll 'Whale' element of the British artificial Mulberry B harbour at Arromanches to be preserved and re-used to bridge the river Vire for the benefit of walkers and cyclists on the Carentan to Mont Saint Michel voie verte. The 'Whale' had been promised to the Les Amis du Pont Bailey in August 2008 on condition the association a suitable location for it.
- Featured in an article 'Avec Le Général' in La Manche Libre coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the death of General de Gaulle.
- Began contributing a monthly column, 'Les Découvertes en Campagne de Christopher', to the Normandy newspaper La Voix Le Bocage.
- Appeared in 3-minute documentary news item for French television (TF1) on individual responses to General de Gaulle's 18 June 1940 'Appel'.
- Organised a number of educational visits and field studies at Le Bosquet/Boquet, Pont-Farcy (linked to flora, fauna, hedging practice, ornithology or traditional local building methods) including:
- Thirty students and two teachers in two groups from the Lycée de Thère, St Lô – field trip to study the importance of hedges, led by ornithologist Jean Collette of GONm, and CAL on hedge-laying and management, combined with sheep breeding. (October)
- Eleven students and two teachers from the Lycée de Thère, St Lô – studying sheep management on a small-holding (March).
- Thirty-two historians and archaeologists from the Channel Islands and England – examining a dozen buildings from the C11th to the C16th (churches manor houses, etc), notably those from the C16th rural Renaissance period in the Bocage Virois.
- Sixteen students and two teachers from the Lycée Agricole, Vire – working field trip to develop practical skills in hedge-laying, and tree and hedgerow maintenance, including an ornithological tour led by Jean Collette of GONm (March)
- Gave a talk to the Club Photo de Pont-Farcy on the history and significance of the river Vire whose canalisation (completed in 1861) brought lime to the Bocage Virois leading directly to a world-renowned dairy industry in Normandy: De l'Eau, des Bateaux, de la Chaux et des Veaux.
- Organised research visits to l'Aumoire at Morigny (Manche, Basse-Normandie): a well-preserved example of a C16th manor house with evidence of galleried hall and an array of secondary buildings including: a separate manor house above a cider production facility, a bakery, a chapel, a dovecote, etc.
- Acquired Le Boquet (2 hecatres) along with its C16th-C19th buildings (house/barn/grange, bread oven, stable, hen house, well and calf shed) to be restored, along with two further habitations and a dairy, as a rare example of the structures which comprised an independent farm 'village' in the Bocage Virois.
- Proposed stories to French press:
- La Vire Canalisée: Randonné et Conférence Passionnent 50 Amateurs (OF)
- L'Abbé Yves Langlois: Souvenirs d'un Réfractaire au STO F (Service du Travail Obligatoire en Allemagne) Août 1943 - Août 1944 (LVLB)
- Les Jeunes Préservent Le Paysage de Demain (LVLB)
- L'Horloge de Pont-Farcy (LVLB)
- Les Stranges Vous Disent Merci (LVLB)
- L'Aumoire: Les Anglais Friands du Patrimoine Oublié (LVLB)
2009
- Speaker at the Mont et Merveille conference at the Archives Départementales at St Lô, Normandy, on the relationship between Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy and St Michael's Mount in Cornwall during the C11th and C12th, proposing that, as a consequence of the Norman Conquest, their monks may have lost ancient rights to a lucrative trade in Cornish tin (see: St Michel, l'Étain et l'Âge des Cloches").
- Introduced, for the first time, the Special Forces Club in London (Stuart Duncan) to L'Amicale des Anciens des Services Spéciaux de la Défense Nationale in Paris (Col. Henri Debrun), leading to a joint ceremony at Buchenvald concentration camp on 15 Oct 2010 in memory of 30 British and French special services personnel who died there at German hands in World War ll (attended by General Sir Michael Rose). The two organisations then planned to share research material and wartime records.
- Began a project to restore a ruined workshop at Le Bosquet experimenting with a timber-framed straw-bale and clay construction, sitting on a foundation wall of car tyres rammed with earth around a 20 sq. m. beaten-earth floor.
- Interviewed by La Voix Le Bocage for an article marking the Prix Bayeux for war reporting.
- Organised a Bailey Bridge Picnic on D-Day (06-06-09) followed later in the year by a visit, led by historian David Lecoeur, for Les Amis du Pont Bailey to Mont Pinçon, the highest point in Normandy, liberated by British forces in August 1944 during the Battle of Normandy.
- Organised the official inauguration of the preserved Bailey Bridge at Pont-Farcy on 08-08-2009, as president of Les Amis du Pont Bailey.
- Published a study entitled Tonsures, Tin, Bronze & Bells proposing that the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy may have been involved, through their priory at St Michael's Mount in England, in the mediaeval trade in tin from Cornwall, necessary for the production of pewter, bronze and church bells.
- Proposed stories to French press:
- Revue de l'année 2008: Bailey Bridge (LVLB)
- Timur d'Vatz Fait Voyager Les Couleurs du Bocage (LVLB)
- Brianna: Sur les Traces de George Para Pendant la Guerre (LVLB)
- Comment Susciter l'Intérêt Autour du Pont? (LVLB)
- Amis du Pont Bailey: Pour Que Vive le Vétéran Métallique (OF)
- Entre Fête et Devoir de Mémoire (LVLB)
- Cérémonie de la Libération: Se Rassembler Pour Mieux Se Souvenir (OF)
- Recueillement et Festivités Pour Les 65 Ans (OF)
- Les Amis du Pont Bailey en Visite au Mont Pinçon (OF)
2008
- Founding president of Les Amis du Pont Bailey, formed to save a condemned British World War ll Bailey bridge (once part of the Mulberry 'B' artificial harbour at Arromanches). The last physical evidence in the bocage of British involvement in the Battle of Normandy after D-Day in 1944, the bridge was unveiled in Pont-Farcy on 17 October in the presence of sappers of the Royal Engineers who helped restore and set it up as a memorial.
- Translated a variety of material (French-English) for Les Chemins du Mont-Saint-Michel including its web site.
- Organised visits to Cornwall by French historians and archaeologists to promote the re-connection between St Michael's Mount in England and Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy (see TV documentary A Tale of Two Castles by Footloose TV, screened England in May 2008).
- A judge of Dorset Down sheep presented at the Concours Général Agricole des Animaux (Salon de Paris) agricultural show. Also showed Dorset Horn sheep at the Bures-les-Mont 'Mediaeval Fair'.
- Led the week-long third annual Anglo-Norman 'Conquest' of England with Anne & David Nicolas-Méry, François Saint-James, Timur d'Vatz and Sarah Long: exploring Anglo-Norman, Roman, Saxon and Viking links in Durham, Yorkshire and Northumberland.
- Provided web site and other translations for Les Chemins du Mont-Saint-Michel in Vire, Normandy, in preparation for the 1,300th anniversaries of the founding and consacration of Mont-Saint-Michel (2008/2009), having instigated the proposed opening of 'pilgrim' routes in south-west England linking St Michael's Mount and Mont-Saint-Michel.
- Continued to edit a web site for Respecter Le Bocage; to provide independent French/English translator and interpreter services to local notaires; and translator/interpreter services to Alu Composites Yachting.
2007
- Conceived and designed a web site promoting the town and annual fête of Landelles-et-Coupigny.
- Translated from French into English the technical specifcations and publicity material for Alu Composites Yachting's Futuna 50', 57' and 70' ocean-going cruisers.
- Launched a campaign to preserve and publicly display Pont-Farcy's superb church clock which had been abandoned and neglected since the early 1960s – successfully achieved in 2011!).
- Conceived the idea of telling local history through bandes-dessinées, becoming a founding member of the team that created Chroniques de l'Armoire Temporelle, stories written and illustrated by 'Moloch' to explore episodes in the history of the Norman Bocage Virois, the first being Le Filigrane du Rat published by La Voix le Bocage on 7 Dec 2007, supported by 'Tourisme en Bocage Virois' and European 'Leader+' funding – featuring Sarah Long and Georges de Coupigny, also translated into English.
- Organised a series of semi-official visits and tours of Le Mont-Saint-Michel – collaborating with David Nicolas-Méry and François Saint-James – in order to re-establish relations between St Michael's Mount in Cornwall and Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy (for the first time about 700 years) in the run-up to the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Norman abbey.
- Led the week-long second annual Anglo-Norman 'Conquest' of England with David Nicolas-Méry, François Saint-James and Sarah Long: exploring Anglo-Norman and Saxon links in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Hampshire.
- Produced the first pedigree Dorset Down lambs from a newly imported English Dorset Down ram [see Elevage Dorset] showing a ram and a ewe of this breed at the annual Saint Sever Sheep Fair.
- Continued to edit a web site for Respecter Le Bocage; and to provide independent French/English translator and interpreter services to local notaires.
2006
- Translated (French to English) three short films forming part of the Mont Saint Michel manuscripts' displays at the new Avranches Scriptorial museum (opened August 2006).
- Produced the first pedigree Dorset Horn & Dorset Down lambs for sale through Elevage Dorset (see references in articles in La Manche Libre and in La Voix Le Bocage) – subsequently presenting the Dorset Horn breed at the Saint Sever sheep fair.
- Continued to edit a web site for Respecter Le Bocage; and to provide independent French/English translator and interpreter services to local notaires.
- Led the week-long first annual Anglo-Norman 'Conquest' of England with David Nicolas-Méry, François Saint-James, Timur d'Vatz, Vanessa Gendrin, Didier and Sarah Long: exploring Anglo-Norman links in Dorset and Devon.
2005
- Presented a talk to the London Hellenic Centre entitled Greek Migrations: Phanariot, Chian & Other Families, and the Secrets of their Success.
- An occasional contributor to the local French media: e.g. Quality of Life.
- Continued: to edit a web site for Respecter Le Bocage; to provide independent French/English translator and interpreter services to local notaires; and to develop Elevage Dorset.
2004
- Founding member and web-site editor of Respecter Le Bocage, devoted to protecting the Calvados/Normandy environment and specifically demanding that cables carrying a proposed 400,000 volt electricity supply be buried rather than carried on pylons across a highly sensitive area of outstanding natural beauty.
- Continued the web presentation of David Nicolas-Méry's study on the Donjon d'Avranches.
- Registered with A.I.F.C.C. in Caen as an official, independent French/English translator and interpreter (resigned in 2005).
- Devised and taught an English language training course to meet the needs of about 20 French secrétaires de mairie in Normandy.
- Continued: to develop Elevage Dorset, using the press to publicise the merits of traditional hedge-laying (plessage) (a technique largely lost in Normandy); and to provide bi-lingual web authoring and editing services to new and existing clients.
2002 — 2003
- A judge in the NetMedia 2003 European Online Journalism Awards.
- Occasional contributor to French media on the impending war in Iraq – e.g. Radio France Bleu and La Voix Le Bocage.
- Designing, editing and/or maintaining web sites, several with mutli-lingual capability: examples (finished, testing or under construction) include:
- L'Association Barbacane d'Avranches, Normandie – a society which explores the history, archeology and culture of Avranches in Normandy and which organises events and festivals devoted to Norman and Anglo-Norman heritage.
- Festival Equinox d'Avranches, Normandie – the annual Anglo-Norman festival held in Avranches and organised by L'Association Barbacane.
- The Donjon d'Avranches, Normandie – a large site explaining the extraordinary rediscovery in 2002 of the full extent of the remains of an important C11th Norman castle at Avranches.
- Jean-Louis Tamvaco, Paris – related to the author's previously published reserach into the history of opera as published as Les Cancans (CNRS Paris) and which includes some family Greek diaspora family history.
- Ste Marie Outre L'Eau, Normandie – a small site devoted to life in a tiny French commune in Calvados and to its annual fête in particular.
- L'Orangerie, Vire, Normandie – devoted to the sale of an historic property in Normandy (site now withdrawn).
- Le Parc, Le Tourneur, Normandie – information concerning an old Norman farmhouse in Calvados, available for holiday rental.
- A judge in the NetMedia 2002 European Online Journalism Awards.
- Established Elevage Dorset, an officially recognised small flock of pedigree Dorset Down & Dorset Horn sheep at Le Bosquet, Pont-Farcy, Normandy, France. The project, on 3 hectares (5 hectares by 2010), aims to improve the two breeds, introduce their qualities to European breeders, and to provide breeding ewes, along with rams as terminal sires, to European breeders [Flock No.: FR 14-513-091 — Siren /Siret : 448 316 208 00017].
2001
- Settled permanently in Normandy, France.
- Commissioned by RSCG (Corporate), Paris to translate and edit web site material for its French defence and avionics client, Thalès.
2000
- Short term contract as a web author for the Clinnix service operated by Synigence plc, in Berkshire, UK.
- Designer and editor of web sites for several clients: including Timur D'Vatz in London; Laverock School in Surrey, UK; Winton Pre-school in Hampshire; and designer of web graphics for Morwellham Quay in Devon.
1999
- Consultant to the town of Albert, Somme, France, on the development of its municipal web site.
- Consultant to the private bank Zarifi et Cie in Marseilles, France, for its corporate web site.
- Carried out research for a prospective British TV documentary on Mediterranean history — in Vienna, Trieste, Livorno, Marseilles and the Aegean island of Chios.
- Eleventh tour to The Balkans for B-Sky TV News, based in Skopje and on the Macedonia/Kosovo frontier, covering the Spring assembly of Nato's Extraction Force & Kfor components as conflict continued in Kosovo.
- Toured Eastern Europe (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic) observing the situation 10 years after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.
1998
- Continued as a specialist studio contributor to B-Sky TV News coverage of Balkan affairs during the Kosovo conflicts.
- Featured in 'Sleep' a Twenty-Twenty TV series for Channel 4, screened 07-98, enacting the effects of stress-induced disturbed sleep.
- Created a web site for the international educational project Crossing Borders.
- Continued to provide editorial, IT, web & graphics skills to London design consultants Catalytico.
- Created an outline Web site for the London based charity for refugees in Slovenia TFSR.
- Provided testimony and evidence to prosecution investigators from the International Criminal Tribunal (Yugoslavia) (ICTY) on events in the Balkans, 1991 — 95 — see War Crimes Trials.
- Contributed & edited news/policy items for Bulletins 12 and 13 of the National Consumer Council.
- Continued to comment on Balkan developments — e.g. Kosovo Ignites for KPFK radio Los Angeles.
- Continued to develop The Memory Bank 2000 project.
- Continued to write and compile a practical handbook for journalists.
1997
- Conceived and developed The Memory Bank 2000 as an on-line archive of popular C20th memory and experience in text, sounds and images.
- Provided editorial, IT, web & graphics skills to London design consultants Catalytico.
- Edited a number of advisory reports published by the National Consumer Council to assist British government policy-making on Environment, Health, etc.
- Short assignment to write web articles for Price Waterhouse.
- Studio and news-room assistance in ITN/LNR's General Election radio news coverage.
- Monitoring and analysing the British General Election coverage in the national press for Carma International.
- Began writing and editing a definitive practical handbook for trainee & graduate journalists.
1996
- Visited Nuremberg for the 50th anniversary of the 1946 Nuremberg Trials, comparing them with the 1996 International Criminal Tribunal (Yugoslavia) (ICTY) at The Hague for LBC/LNR Radio.
- Regular production shifts, news stories and special reports for London Talk Radio/LBC Radio.
- Covered the Somme 80th Anniversary in northern France for UK & Overseas radio.
- Continued to contribute to South African Radio (SABC) on Bosnian and European events.
- Conceived and wrote the 'Blue Light Zone' for the Unysis Mobile Data web pages, in association with Axcess Media.
1995
- Conceived and developed the Journalist Tracking Network (JTN) – a web-based service linking editors and news rooms with journalists and news sources world-wide.
- Commentator for South African Radio (SABC) on Bosnia events and the Dayton peace process.
- Contributor to The Journal of the CIoJ on the Lessons of War.
- Tenth tour to The Balkans, contributing 22 live two-ways and reports to Reuters Radio News, London News Radio and BBC Radio News covering Bosnian Events, the summer offensives, UN hostage crises, the formation of Rapid Reaction Forces, UN policy failures and the assembly of the quasi-Nato Task Force. Followed front line developments from Ploce and Mostar to Vitez, Gornji Vakuf, Visoko and Zenica.
- Frequent appearances as a specialist commentator for B-Sky TV's coverage from The Balkans.
1994
- Founder member of the Internet Developers Association (London).
- Ninth tour to The Balkans, for NHK TV (Japan), to devise, research & write 'The Bridge' as associate producer of a 20' Hi-Def TV documentary about civilian victims of war in the divided city of Mostar, screened 25-11-94.
- Frequent specialist commentator on B-Sky TV's coverage from The Balkans.
- Newsdesk shifts in London at Independent Radio News (IRN) and assisted in the setting-up of Reuters Radio News
- A contributor to MacFormat magazine.
- Eighth tour to The Balkans, examining illegal arms supplying to the war zones, sanctions-busting and the efficiency of UN frontier monitoring, observed from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Albania, Macedonia and Greece.
1993
- Adviser to Brit-Aid — a project to evacuate children at risk in war zones.
- Specialist adviser to Channel 4 TV's week-long 'Bloody Bosnia' & 'Comment' content.
- Contributor of Home, Foreign & Investigative news items to The Observer.
- Conceived, developed and designed the 'Portudio' portable mixer-amplifier studio-link for radio reporters.
1992
- Seventh tour to The Balkans, filing to BBC Radio News and The Daily Mail from the Bosnia-Hercegovinan front-line (Metkovic, Mostar, Sarajevo, Kiseljak, Vitez, Travnik, Bugojno and Prozor). Exclusive: the British ODA/UNHCR convoy driving into severe artillery fire at Sarajevo Airport.
- Sixth tour to The Balkans, observing the Croatian political situation in Zagreb, filing to BBC Radio News and contributing Where To Draw The Lines in The Balkans to Nova Matica.
- Contributed a series of investigative news features for The Observer.
- Covered the European Community's London Conference on former Yugoslavia.
- Fifth tour to The Balkans, covering front line activity in Hercegovina, Bosnia, the besieged capital, Sarajevo and the Bosanski Brod and the Dalmatian Coast refugee crises, contributing to: BBC Radio News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 1, The Daily Telegraph, LBC, Capital Radio, IRN and Croatia Radio.
- Speaker at a Royal Institute for International Affairs debate on the Balkan wars and guest speaker at the RIIA seminar on the likely effects of sanctions on Serbia.
- Fourth tour to The Balkans, witnessing the start of the Croat assaults on Muslims in Hercegovina, e.g. in Prozor, Gornji Vakuf and Dornji Vakuf. Covered the developing refugee crisis on the Dalamtian coast for The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard and BBC Radio News. Further contributions to ITN's Channel 4 News, B-Sky TV, and the BBC's 'World Service', 'World Tonight' & 'World At One'.
- Wrote an obituary for The Independent on a colleague, the photographer Paul Jenks, killed in Croatia.
- Visited Moscow as a guest contributor to the independent newspaper Nezarvicimaya.
1991
- The first commentator to predict war in Bosnia-Hercegovina on ITN's Channel 4 News — 17-12-91.
- Delegate at London's Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) conference and subsequent seminar on 'Yugoslavia'.
- Specialist contributor on the war in Croatia for BBC Radio News, IRN, LWT, BBC TV News and ITN's Channel 4 News.
- Exclusive interview with President Tudjman in his nuclear shelter for BBC Radio News ('Today') and Globus.
- Exclusive interview with President Stipe Mesic aboard M.V. Slavija for Globus (Zagreb).
- Two extensive tours in 'Yugoslavia', covering the wars in Slovenia and Croatia as a correspondent for the London Evening Standard and Globus (Zagreb). The only British newspaper journalist on the M.V. Slavija convoy to break the Dubrovnik Blockade.
- Wrote a series of explanatory pieces and profiles for Globus (Zagreb), as the Serbo-Croatian war developed.
- Contributed Balkan Suicide to Osmija (Belgrade).
- Wrote the obituary for Sir Geoffrey Peacock, CVO, for The Times.
- Continued to provide copy-writing services to IMS, London.
1990
- Provided copy-writing services to IMS, London.
- Conceived, designed, launched and edited The Music Magazine — later a BBC flagship title.
- Founding director of The Yellow Guide Publishing Company.
1988 — 1989
- Covered the 1989 military assault by the JNA on Pristina in Kosovo.
- Investigated and revealed the Pamella Bordes Libyan security scandal as exclusives for the London Evening Standard and The Daily Express: 17/18-05-89.
- Presented, in 1988, a paper to the International Conference on The Littoral (University of Lille) on the current state and likely future of the English Channel's coastal ecology.
- Invented, in 1988, The Snowball (British Reg. Pat. No 88 26 895.8).
- Emergency volunteer during the London Ambulance Service workers' strike.
1988 — 1992
- Provided editorial and publishing consultancy services to:
Orpheus Publications,
BBC Publications,
IMS,
The Big Issue,
The Evening Standard,
The London Diary and
American News.
1987 — 1988
- Winner in the 1987/88 'Magazine of the Year Awards' and 'PPA Awards' as editor of World Magazine.
- Founding editor, 1987, of World Magazine. Conceived, developed, designed and launched the double award-winning, 128-page, full-colour, international monthly (circ. 75,000 p.m.) — subsequently bought by the BBC in 1989.
- Contributor of regular features to The Mayfair Times.
- Researched & edited, 1989—90, Greek Fire by Helen Long (Abson Books, 1992) [see: Massacres of Chios].
1980 — 1987
- Edited, 1985, Voyage Of The Flowers by D. Fordyce, tracing the origins of Buddhism and Hinduism to the Indus Valley (c.3000 BC) through the iconography of flowers.
- Regular feature-writer, 1984—86, on London Hotel Magazine and Ritz Magazine.
- Contributor to Selfridges and Property & Investment magazines.
- Edited, 1984, That Reminds Me... an autobiography by Michael Beecham, published 1985.
- Researched, 1983—84, Safe Houses Are Dangerous by Helen Long (Wm. Kimber, 1985) — [see Secret Papers, for London Portrait Magazine, on WWll SOE & MI9 escape lines]
- Regular contributor, 1983—86, to London Portrait Magazine as principal News Columnist and Feature Writer.
- Commented on the confusion between News & Comment in TV reporting for The Daily Telegraph.
- Regular feature-writer, 1982—84 on Select Magazine.
- Editor and advisor, 1980-83, to the publisher Mary Glasgow during the writing of her autobiography.
1980 — 1996
- Began reporting to Independent Radio News (IRN) and London Broadcasting Company (LBC).
- Copy-writer for Homeline Limited.
1979 — 1992
- Contributor of frequent 'overnights' to the London Evening Standard on Home, Foreign, Diary and Features desks.
1978 — 1983
- Columnist on Time & Tide, the political monthly, until its closure.
- Joined the staff of The London Newspaper Group as a news reporter, feature-writer and principal columnist on the Kensington News & Post, Marylebone Mercury, Fulham Chronicle and Chelsea News and Westminster & Pimlico News [see: Chelsea Vignette]. Over nearly five years produced around 3,200 news items, features, leaders and columns on Central London affairs, personalities and events. Provided cross-media coverage of the Iranian and Libyan embassy sieges and the IRA Central London bombing campaigns.
BEFORE BECOMING A JOURNALIST
- 1948 — 67 Christopher Long was born in England and educated in the UK:
- Laverock School, Limpsfield, Surrey (1953-56)
- The Hill School, Westerham, Kent (1956-62)
- St Edmund's School, Canterbury, Kent (1962-67)
- 1966 Helped Sir Winston Churchill's secretary to sort and list his personal possessions, papers and books following his death and prior to the establishment of a museum at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent. Took part in a student visit to Leningrad and Moscow.
- 1967 Entered The Hon. Society of The Inner Temple, London, to read tort, crime, contract and land law.
- 1968 A marketing consultant for: Coates Bros. (printing inks).
- 1969 Collaborated on Disease & History (Hart Davis, 1971) while training in marketing with the Granite & Quartzite Centre in London, Cape Town, the Kalahari Desert and Durban.
- 1970 Joined Lever Brothers in South Africa as a Brand Manager, over-seeing five leading detergent brands; later seconded to advertising agencies Lintas and JWT, working on the imminent launch of television in South Africa.
- 1971 Re-entered The Hon. Society of The Inner Temple, London, to read tort, crime, contract and land law.
- 1974 — 76 Temporary clerical assistant with Godstone Rural District Council (Oxted, Surrey). A founding director of the audio-visual production company Access Media. Developed, with Redland Tiles (Westerham, Kent), two of his own patented inventions to production (tile clips for straight and broken bond roof tiles).
- 1976 — 77 Edited Change Into Uniform (Terence Dalton, 1978) an autobiography by Helen Long. Held temporary posts at advertising agencies Astral and S&J (Kensington, London) and, as a marketing consultant, at Lamson Paragon (Canning Town, London).
- 1978 — 81 After beginning a career in journalism in 1978: Helped in the reception of 347 Vietnamese Boat People refugees in London. Took an increasing but temporary role in helping to manage Slaley Hall, Northumberland, a large mixed agricultural estate of 3,500 acres (growing sheep, fattening steers/heifers, forestry, etc).
SKILLS
- Twenty-five years experience as: a reporter (home, investigative, foreign, war, etc), leader writer, feature writer, columnist and diarist, sub-editor and commissioning editor; also a book researcher, contributor and editor.
- Expertise in: all aspects of print and web publishing
- Expert knowledge of: both Macintosh & PC computers and most of their software, including sound and image manipulation; and HTML 5 for web design, etc.
- Competent in: radio production, presentation and news desk procedures.
- Good understanding of: the fundamental principles of English law.
- Languages: native: English. fluent: French.
FACILITIES
- Resident in Normandy, France.
- Clean French driving licence
- No visa restrictions
- Red Cross First Aid Certificate
- Former member of The Chartered Institute of Journalists
- Recognised as an official independent French/English translator and interpreter.
PRESS ACCREDITATION
- UK & International, HMG/Metropolitan Police.
© (1994) Christopher A. Long. Copyright, Syndication & All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
The text and graphical content of this and linked documents are the copyright of their author and or creator and site designer, Christopher Long, unless otherwise stated. No publication, reproduction or exploitation of this material may be made in any form prior to clear written agreement of terms with the author or his agents.
