Profile

Navanetham 'Navi' Pillay has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. The 85 year old South African jurist and former UN Human Rights chief initially thought the news was a joke. Born in Durban, South Africa, to a Tamil family, her grandparents had come to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane fields. Born under apartheid rule neither of her parents were educated and he...

This week’s Conservative Party conference saw the Kemi Badenoch further cement her position at the helm of her party. But can her increased personal popularity help a party that is still lagging behind Reform UK in the polls? The daughter of a GP and a professor of physiology, Kemi Badenoch was born in Wimbledon but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. At the age of 16, she moved to London where she worked...

Presenter Claudia Winkleman, with her trademark fringe, is the host of The Celebrity Traitors season two. The London-born broadcaster has been a familiar face on television for more than three decades - but who is the woman behind the hair? The daughter of journalist Eve Pollard, known as ‘The First Lady of Fleet Street’, and book publisher Barry Winkleman, as a child Claudia was taken to the Nati...

Mark Coles profiles Alice Weidel, the some say, unlikely joint leader and public face of the far right, nationalist AfD - the Alternative for Germany party. Weidel's a right wing populist and a self confessed fan of Margaret Thatcher. Yet in some respects, particularly when it comes to her private life is seemingly at odds with, almost the antithesis of what her party stands for. Her supporters do...

Amy Hunt, 24, was born and grew up in Newark, Nottinghamshire. In the classroom, on the sports field, playing cello or tap dancing, she excelled at whatever she did. She wasn't always a quick runner though. Her teacher, Phil Shepherd, recalls that when she was nine or ten 'she had incredibly long legs and her body hadn't grown into it.' But it didn't take long. Aged 12, she joined Grantham Athleti...

The writer, presenter and podcaster Richard Osman has released his latest novel – We Chase Shadows, the second book in his We Solve Murders series. The release follows the success of his Thursday Murder Club novels which have sold millions of copies since the first book was published in 2020. It has since been made into a film produced by Steven Spielberg. Known for his TV presenter role on the hi...

The Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff is suddenly the name on everyone's lips. With his careful oratory and intangible 'it factor' comparisons have been made with a young Barack Obama. But who is the 39-year-old from Atlanta? Born in 1987 Ossoff grew up in Georgia where he attended a private school in the wealthy neighbourhood of Druid Hills. While at school Ossoff wrote to the civil rights leader and U...

Labour's new chief whip is a Liverpudlian with a broad cultural hinterland. Anneliese Midgley grew up in Knowsley on a housing estate. Her family struggled financially when she was growing up but their fortunes changed when her father got a job at the Halewood Ford factory. They moved to the more affluent area of Penny Lane and as a teenager Annaliese got a job at The Beatles Shop. Music became a...

The New Labour old boy was at one time a front runner to lead his Party. But after a scandalous resignation from Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, it seemed his political career was over…until now. James Purnell grew up between France and Guildford. Spending his teenage years at the fee-paying Royal Grammar School, he was known for his distinctive Parisian style and ‘Rupert the Bear’ trousers. A fan of the...

The FIFA president grew up in Switzerland as part of an Italian migrant family, and fell in love with football and its administration when he was just a teenager. Having qualified as a football lawyer and making a name for himself at the European football federation UEFA, Infantino ended up perfectly positioned to take over the presidency of the world body FIFA after the organisation was mired in...

Donna Ockenden is a senior midwife and healthcare leader who has spent more than 35 years reforming patient safety in UK maternity services. Born in South Wales, she overcame a difficult childhood marked by poverty, family breakdown, and a period of homelessness. As a young midwife she cared for a baby named Gina who died from substandard care. This tragic event led to her lifelong 'Gina promise'...

The former boyband member and teen heartthrob, Harry Styles, is going into the final week of his sold-out residency at Wembley before continuing his world tour. After winning music competitions while at school in Cheshire, Styles entered television’s biggest talent show, The X Factor, in 2010. While not making it as a solo star he was grouped together with four other contestants to form One Direct...

Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe is the newest disruptor in right-wing politics but the path he has taken to get there is a familiar one. Born in Oxford in 1957 Lowe attended an elite all boys boarding school before studying for a degree in Estate Management. After university he was a commodity broker in the City and went to Japan to work in securities but when British football clubs emerged as attra...

Next week, Harry Kane will lead the England men’s squad into their first game of the 2026 World Cup. Kane has a wealth of experience behind him - he is England’s all-time record goalscorer and has also racked up an extraordinary tally at his current club, Germany’s Bayern Munich. Kane is at the top of his game, but his ascent has been anything but smooth. Born in east London in 1993, Kane develope...

Maggie O'Farrell was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. Keen to move away from The Troubles, her father took a job at the University of Wales and the family moved to Bridgend when Maggie was a child. At the age of eight she was hospitalised with encephalitis. She didn't attend school during this time but instead she discovered literature. The family then moved to Scotland. After her A' Level's, Mag...

Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has received international condemnation after he posted a video showing himself taunting activists kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli naval forces. His actions also drew rare criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they were "not in line with Israe...

Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth has been confirmed as Wales' first minister, calling it "the greatest privilege of my life". Born in Tonteg in south-east Wales, ap Iorwerth moved to Anglesey as a young child. His father was a teacher, prominent singer and composer, and an active campaigner for Plaid Cymru. His mother was also a teacher and went on to become president of several organisations promot...

British cryptocurrency investor and billionaire Christopher Harborne made headlines when it was revealed he gave £5million to Reform Party leader Nigel Farage before he was an MP. Last year Harborne also gave a single donation of £9m to Reform UK - the biggest ever donation to a UK political party by a living person. He has also previously donated to the Brexit Party and the Conservatives. Very li...

Nearly 30 years ago, Jamie Oliver hit British TV screens with The Naked Chef, beginning a career arc that has seen him become a bestselling author and social campaigner. He started helping out in his parents' pub aged just eight, and struggled at school, but after making the move into cookery he flourished, first in top kitchens and then behind the camera. Cultural ubiquity and campaigning documen...

Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour MP and the influential head of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, is in the hot seat as the committee continues its ongoing investigation - dubbed ‘Scandelson’ scrutinising - into the circumstances behind Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador. Born in Guildford in 1960 her mother was a teacher and her father an academic who would go on to b...

Kristalina Georgieva is not like previous heads of the International Monetary Fund. She grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Soviet bloc. Born in Sofia in 1953, her father was a civil engineer and her mother a shopkeeper. Life was tough because her family weren't part of the Communist Party regime. Her father fell ill when Kristalina was young and she was just fi...

McFly front man and children's author Tom Fletcher has returned to his first love - musical theatre - penning the songs for Paddington the Musical which has just got its sticky paws on seven prestigious Olivier Awards. Born in Harrow north west London, Fletcher took inspiration from a family love of musical theatre and it wasn't long before he was treading the boards, performing the role of Oliver...

Viktor Orbán has been a powerful force in Hungarian politics for nearly 40 years, spending 20 of them as Prime Minister. This weekend he’s trying to win a sixth term in the top job, as voters go to the polls in parliamentary elections. The story of his political career is entwined with the story of Hungarian democracy; at the end of the Cold War, a young Orbán emerged as both canny operator and gi...

From over-worked medics to bent coppers, for the last 30 years Jed Mercurio has been responsible for some of the UK’s most successful TV series, including Cardiac Arrest, Bodies and Bodyguard. But Line of Duty is arguably his biggest hit, and recording has started for the much-anticipated seventh series. The award-winning screenwriter, director and producer grew up in a working-class family in Sta...

Dame Sarah Mullally has been installed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury this week. The former nurse from Woking is the first woman to occupy the role of de facto leader of the Church of England and leader of the global Anglican communion. In contrast to her Eton and Oxford educated predecessor Justin Welby, Sarah Mullally attended her local comprehensive before studying nursing at South Bank Po...