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Nicholas Coleridge

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Sir Nicholas Coleridge
CBE DL
Nicholas Coleridge
Born
Nicholas David Coleridge

(1957-03-04) 4 March 1957 (age 67)
London, England
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Provost, Eton College
Chairman, Historic Royal Palaces
SpouseGeorgia Metcalfe
Children4

Sir Nicholas David Coleridge, CBE, DL (born 4 March 1957) is a British former media executive, author, and cultural chair. He is chairman of Historic Royal Palaces (2023–) and Provost of Eton (2024–). He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to museums, publishing and the creative industries.

Early Life

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Coleridge was born in London, the son of David Coleridge, who was chairman of Lloyd's of London in the late 1980s.[1] He is the eldest of three brothers, and educated at Ashdown House, Eton College[2] and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied theology and history of art.[3] As an Eton schoolboy he won the Jeremy Thorpe prize for debating with his schoolfriend Craig Brown; the prize was later renamed when Thorpe's reputation fell under a shadow.[4]

Career

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He has been chairman of The Victoria and Albert Museum, chairman and president of Conde Nast, chairman of the PPA – the Professional Publishers' Association – and two-term chairman of the British Fashion Council for four years, overseeing London Fashion Week for the Department of Trade and Industry. In 2002, as chairman of the British Fashion Council, he suggested that the then Sunday Times fashion editor, Colin McDowell, was habitually too negative about British fashion designers.[5] This drew criticism from McDowell, who accused Coleridge of jingoism.[5]

From 1989 to 2019, he was successively editorial director of Condé Nast Britain, managing director, Condé Nast Britain (1991–2017), vice president, Condé Nast International and president, Condé Nast International, the division of Condé Nast which publishes 139 magazines in 27 international markets, and over 100 websites. He was described by Campaign magazine in 2012 as “magazines' most compelling advocate for almost two decades”.[6] Coleridge initiated Condé Nast's Vogue College of Fashion and Design in 2013, a degree-awarding academic institution in London's Soho. From 2017 to 2019, he was chairman of Condé Nast Britain.

He was the chairman of the Victoria and Albert museum (2015–23) and co-chair of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant. During his tenure as V&A chair, the museum opened its Exhibition Road courtyard and Sainsbury Gallery, V&A Dundee in Scotland, Young V&A in Bethnal Green and initiated the two new museums on the Olympic Park - V&A Storehouse and V&A East. [7]

From 2008-2024 he was successively Vice Chairman and Chairman (2013-2024) of HM The King's Campaign For Wool, a global endeavour established to promote the sheep and wool industries, as well as sustainability and biodiversity.[8][9]

He was founding chairman of Fashion Rocks, the fashion and rock music extravaganza showcasing the world's eighteen top fashion designers including Dior, Chanel, Prada and Ralph Lauren paired with eighteen top rock stars including Beyoncé, Robbie Williams, Bryan Ferry and David Bowie.

He has been a member of the Council of the Royal College of Art, and a member of the trading board of the Prince's Trust. He was a director of PressBof,[10] the parent organisation of the Press Complaints Commission, 2007–2014. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, an ambassador for the Landmark Trust and a patron of the Elephant Family. [11]

As a journalist, he has been an contributor to The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and the Financial Times. In 1976, between school and university, he was a cub reporter on the Falmouth Packet newspaper in Cornwall.[12] From 1979 to 1982 he was associate editor of the Tatler, working for then editor Tina Brown; from 1982 to 1985 he was a columnist at the Evening Standard. While on assignment making a television documentary about Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka in 1984, he was arrested and jailed for ten days in Welikada prison, Colombo, where he embarked upon writing a collection of short stories, How I Met My Wife. From 1986–1989 he was editor-in-chief of Harpers & Queen magazine, a Hearst title, before joining Condé Nast.

He has written fourteen books,[13] both fiction and non-fiction, based either upon his professional life (The Fashion Conspiracy[14], Paper Tigers[15], With Friends Like These[16]) or epic novels (Godchildren[17], A Much Married Man[18], Deadly Sins[19].) The Fashion Conspiracy was the UK Number 1 bestseller. His memoirs, The Glossy Years[20], was published in 2019.

Personal life

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He is married to Georgia Metcalfe, an author and healer, and they have four children. They live in Chelsea, London, and in Worcestershire. The December 2007 issue of Condé Nast's World of Interiors magazine contains a feature on his country house, the 1709 Wolverton Hall in Worcestershire. In 2020, he commissioned a 46 foot Folly[21] by the architect Quinlan Terry[22] in a Georgian/Tudor/Jacobean style, which won a Georgian Group award in 2021.[23]

Honours and awards

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He was the 1982 British Press Awards Young Journalist of the Year, as a columnist at the Evening Standard, and was given the Mark Boxer Lifetime Achievement Award for magazine journalism by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2001. In 2013, he was awarded the Marcus Morris Lifetime Achievement Award for publishing by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). In June 2017, he was inducted into the Professional Publishers Association's Hall of Fame by Lord Heseltine. In May 2018 he was awarded the lifetime "Outstanding Contribution to British Media" Prize at the British Media Awards.[24]

Coleridge was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours[25] and was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to museums, publishing and the creative industries.[26][27][28] He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Worcestershire in 2022[29]. In September 2023, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature and Honorary Fellowship by the University of Worcester, and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Buckingham.[30]

A portrait of Coleridge by photographer William Teakle is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[31]

References

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  1. ^ Nicholas Coleridge Q&A at Orion Publishing Group
  2. ^ "Our History".
  3. ^ "Interview". The Independent. 12 January 1998. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022.
  4. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. The Glossy Years. Penguin Fig Tree. p. 368.
  5. ^ a b Cartner-Morley, Jess (18 February 2002). "A fractious start to London fashion week". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  6. ^ Alastair Reid "All About ... Magazine industry consolidation", Campaign, 16 February 2012
  7. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. The Glossy Years. Penguin Fig Tree. p. 368. ISBN 9780241342879.
  8. ^ "Peter Ackroyd MBE to succeed Campaign for Wool chairman Sir Nicholas Coleridge CBE". Campaign For Wool. 6 January 2025.
  9. ^ "Campaign for Wool announces new chairman | Farm News | Farmers Guardian". www.farmersguardian.com. 21 December 2024.
  10. ^ "Press Complaints Commission >> About the PCC >> Who's Who >> PressBof". Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  11. ^ Londoner's Diary: V&A upstages the Serpentine summer bash Evening Standard. 13 June 2016
  12. ^ Sharman, David. "Ex-editor John Marquis writes history of Falmouth Packet - Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage". HoldtheFrontPage.
  13. ^ "Nicholas Coleridge". Amazon UK.
  14. ^ "The Fashion Conspiracy: A Remarkable Journey Through the Empires of Fashion: Amazon.co.uk: Nicholas Coleridge: 9780749300609: Books". www.amazon.co.uk.
  15. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "Paper Tigers".
  16. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "With Friends Like These: Amazon.co.uk: Nicholas Coleridge: 9780752807300: Books". www.amazon.co.uk.
  17. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "Godchildren: Amazon.co.uk: Nicholas Coleridge: 9780752811635: Books". www.amazon.co.uk.
  18. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "A Much Married Man".
  19. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "Deadly Sins".
  20. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "The Glossy Years".
  21. ^ Aslet, Clive (26 July 2020). "The rather wise folly at Wolverton Hall: 'There isn't a detail that I don't think is extraordinarily deft and beautiful'". Country Life.
  22. ^ Terry, Quinlan. "Quinlan Terry | Classical Building Design & Architect Services". Quinlan Terry Architects.
  23. ^ "Architectural Awards 2021 | The Georgian Group". georgiangroup.org.uk.
  24. ^ "Nicholas Coleridge wins Outstanding Contribution to British Media". www.campaignlive.co.uk.
  25. ^ "No. 59090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2009. p. 7.
  26. ^ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B2.
  27. ^ "Queen's Jubilee birthday honours: BEM for church service streamer". BBC News. June 2022.
  28. ^ "Queen honours 'invaluable' qualities". June 2022.
  29. ^ Coleridge, Nicholas. "Vice Lord-Lieutenant and Deputy Lieutenants | Worcestershire County Council". www.worcestershire.gov.uk.
  30. ^ "Honorary Graduates 2023". University of Buckingham.
  31. ^ "Nicholas David Coleridge - Person - National Portrait Gallery". National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
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