Keith Kyle

{{Short description|British writer, broadcaster and historian (1925–2007)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}} {{Use British English|date=September 2016}} '''Keith Kyle''' (4 August 1925, [[Sturminster Newton]], [[Dorset]] – 21 February 2007, London) was a British writer, broadcaster and historian.

==Early life== Kyle was educated at [[Bromsgrove School]] and [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]], [[Oxford University]], where his period as an undergraduate was broken by war service.

==Career== He worked for the [[BBC]] North American Service as a talks producer, succeeding [[Tony Benn]]<ref name="LRB">Jeremy Harding "Right, Left and Centre", ''London Review of Books'', 6 August 2009, p34</ref> in 1951. In 1953, he joined ''[[The Economist]]'' and was sent to Washington; later he was reporter for the BBC's ''[[Tonight (1957 TV series)|Tonight]]'' programme from 1960, specialising in coverage of Africa<ref name="DWB">David Wedgwood Benn [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/keith-kyle-439985.html "Keith Kyle"]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''The Independent'', 13 March 2007</ref> and based in Nairobi.<ref name="Telegraph">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1543417/Keith-Kyle.html "Keith Kyle"], ''Daily Telegraph'', 22 February 2007</ref> He also contributed to ''[[The Observer]]'' and ''[[The Spectator]]'' at this time, and covered [[Rhodesia]] in the period before [[Ian Smith]]'s government made their [[Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)|Unilateral Declaration of Independence]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070319053205/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1480067.ece "Keith Kyle"], ''The Times'', 7 March 2007</ref>

From the late 1960s, Kyle began an academic career, while remaining active as a journalist for some years. He was a Fellow of the [[Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School|John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics]] at [[Harvard University]] (1967–68) and joined [[Chatham House]] in 1972, where he remained for 30 years.<ref>Sandra Harris [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/feb/27/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries "Obituary: Keith Kyle"], ''The Guardian'', 27 February 2007</ref> In the late 1980s, [[St Antony's College, Oxford]] invited him to become an associate member. His history, ''[[Suez Crisis|Suez]]: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) first appeared in 1991,<ref name="Telegraph"/> and is regarded as definitive in almost all the cited articles. His other books include ''The Politics of the Independence of Kenya'' (Macmillan) in 1999 and his posthumous autobiography ''Keith Kyle: Reporting the World'' appeared in June 2009, published by [[I.B.Tauris]].

==Parliamentary candidacies== Kyle had a chequered career as a parliamentary candidate. He had hoped to become a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] candidate in the [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955 general election]], but government policy on [[Suez]] (leading to the [[Suez Crisis]]) dissuaded him. He was an unsuccessful [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] candidate in [[St Albans (UK Parliament constituency)|St Albans]] in the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 election]], for [[Braintree (UK Parliament constituency)|Braintree]] in both [[1974 United Kingdom general election (disambiguation)|1974 elections]] and later was the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) candidate for [[Northampton South (UK Parliament constituency)|Northampton South]] in the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]].<ref name="LRB"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyle, Keith}} [[Category:People educated at Bromsgrove School]] [[Category:People from Sturminster Newton]] [[Category:1925 births]] [[Category:2007 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century English historians]] [[Category:Chatham House people]] [[Category:Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]] [[Category:Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]] [[Category:20th-century British military personnel]] [[Category:Military personnel from Dorset]] [[Category:British male journalists]]