York University Alumni

Off-site links:

University of York Grapevine
Computer Science Alumni
York University Alumni on the World Alumni Net

Victor Lewis Smith (Music)

Now a radio and newspaper columnist and TV star.

Greg Dyke (BA, Politics, 1971-4)

TV executive, now Head of Channel 4.

Liddy Oldroyd (English/Education 1977)

TV director of such programs as Drop the Dead Donkey.

Jung Chang

Best-selling author (Wild Swans).

Harry Enfield

Comedian.

Harriet Harman (Politics 1972)

Member of Parliament for Packham(?), then Camberwell and Peckham. Social Security Secretary; Minister for Women. (Labour)

Tony Banks (Politics 1967)

Member of Parliament for Newham, then West Ham. (Labour)

Richard Burden (YUSU President 1976-7)

Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield (1992).

Malcolm Wicks

Member of Parliament for Croydon North (1992).

Anibal Antonio Cavaco Silva (DPhil, Economics, 1971-4)

Prime Minister of Portugal.

John Witherow

Editor of the Sunday Times.

Hugh Bayley (BPhil South African Studies, 1977)

Research Fellow in the York Health Economics Consortium until 1992, now Member of Parliament for York (Labour).

Keith Bradley (MPhil Social Administration, 1979)

MP for Manchester Withington (Labour).

Michael Browm (Economics and Politics, 1972)

MP for Brigg and Cleethorpes (Conservative).

Michael Meacher (Lecturer Social Policy and Social Work, 1966-9)

MP for Oldham West (Labour).

Simon Hughes

MP.

Christine `this is private property'' Hamilton (Politics, 197x)

Strong willed wife of Neil Hamilton MP.

Matthew Carter

Labour candidate for Vale of York constituency, 1997.

Huw Edwards

Labour MP for Monmouth.

Oona King (Politics)

MP for Bethnal Green & Bow. (Labour)

Jenny Jones (English, 1975)

Science Fiction author.

Rod Hills

Labour Leader of York City Council.

Jung Chang

This article appears in Grapevine, September 1992.

Wild Swans Wins Top Book Prize

The UK's most valuable book prize, the &163;25,000 NCR Book Award, was won in May by Jung Chang. The award, sponsored by NCR Ltd, the computer manufacturer, is the only major prize specially for non-fiction.

Her book, Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China, previewed in a feature article in Grapevine 4, beat three others on the shortlist, Columbus by Filipe Fernandez-Armesto, Bernard Shaw Volume 3 by Michael Holroyd, and the Whitbread prize winner, A Life of Picasso Volume 1 by John Richardson.

Jung, a Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, became the first student from the People's Republic of China to study in Britan when she came to York and was awarded a DPil in 1982. She is currently working on a biography of Mao.

Harry Enfield

This appeared in the Electronic Telegraph

Take Jack "birch the queers" Straw. He used to be president of the National Union of Students. When I was at York University, anyone who took student politics seriously was a bit of a joke. York was a pretty middle-class establishment, so naturally we were Left-wing. We got involved in student politics to get off with girls. All the prettiest girls were from boarding school and within a couple of months they would have chopped their hair short, joined the Labour Club and, with the confidence that only 19-year-old ex-public-school girls have, would lay down the political line to all-comers. They didn't believe in having steady boyfriends, as this implied being a chap's chattel - which was, of course, fascist - so provided one learnt a few phrases about women's rights, one could happily bed-hop between these gorgeous creatures with impunity.

Needless to say, the Labour Club attracted us like bees round a honey pot, and although we were faintly embarrassed to prance around the streets of York yelling for higher grants - knowing that the Rowntrees workers who cycled past us had wives who sheepishly knocked on our bedroom doors at midday to see if we had bothered to get up yet so they could clean our rooms - the end of the evening with the gorgeous feminist justified the means.

Definitely by Harry Enfield. Entirely his words and copyrighted to the Telegraph Group Limited.

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