"I wouldn't describe myself as a master of anything." -- Toby Young
Toby Daniel Moorsom Young (born 17 October 1963) is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. A food writer as well as a journalist, Young served as a regular judge in seasons five and six of the Emmy Award-winning television show Top Chef.
"I really like the Observer. I think I'd love to have a column with a broad reach that would enable me to do some proper reporting, but keep it on sort of a humorous level. I've always had a very happy experience writing for them.""People in London think of London as the center of the world, whereas New Yorkers think the world ends three miles outside of Manhattan."
Young was born in Buckinghamshire, the youngest of five siblings, and brought up in London. His father was Michael Young, a Labour life peer and pioneering sociologist who coined the word "meritocracy". His mother was the novelist, sculptor and painter Sasha Moorsom.
Education
Young was educated at Creighton School, King Edward VI Community College and William Ellis School, where he was in the last grammar school year. In spite of failing all his O-levels, he re-took and applied for a place at Brasenose College, Oxford. He graduated in 1986 with a first in PPE, worked as a News Trainee at The Times, then went to Harvard University as a Fulbright scholar, where he worked as a teaching fellow in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a teaching assistant in the Social and Political Sciences Faculty.
Career
In 1991 he founded and edited the Modern Review with Julie Burchill and her then husband Cosmo Landesman. Its motto was "Low culture for highbrows". This lasted until 1995 when, with the magazine close to financial ruin, Young closed it down, angering his principal financial backer Peter York. This decision led to a fierce public battle with Burchill and her then lover, Charlotte Raven, a writer at the magazine.
Young moved to New York City shortly afterward to work for Vanity Fair. After being let go by Vanity Fair in 1998, Young remained in New York for a further two years, working as a columnist at New York Press. He returned to the UK in 2000 and is currently an associate editor of The Spectator, where he writes a weekly column, and a blogger for The Daily Telegraph.
He has performed in the West End in a stage adaptation of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and, in 2005, co-wrote (with fellow Spectator journalist Lloyd Evans) a sex farce about the David Blunkett/Kimberley Quinn scandal and the "Sextator" affairs of Boris Johnson and Rod Liddle called Who's the Daddy?. It was named Best New Comedy at the 2005 Theatregoers' Choice Awards.
From 2002-7, Young wrote a weekly restaurant column for The Evening Standard and he continues to write about restaurants for a variety of British publications. In addition to serving as a judge on Top Chef, Young has competed in the Channel 4 TV series Come Dine With Me, appeared as one of the panel of food critics in the 2008 BBC Two series Eating with the Enemy and served as a judge on Hell's Kitchen.
British producer Stephen Woolley and his wife, Elizabeth Karlsen, produced the film adaptation How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, in conjunction with FilmFour. Simon Pegg played Young, who co-produced the film. The film was released in Britain on October 3, 2008 and reached the number one spot at the box office in its opening week.
Young co-produced and co-wrote When Boris Met Dave, a drama-documentary for Channel 4 about the relationship between Eton and Oxford University contemporaries Mayor of London Boris Johnson and current Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister David Cameron which aired on More4 on 7 October 2009.
Young is currently leading the efforts of a group of parents and teachers to set up a free school in West London.
Personal life
Young is married to Caroline Bondy with whom he has four children.
