Hollingsworth, Mark 1959–

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Hollingsworth, Mark 1959–

PERSONAL:

Born 1959.

ADDRESSES:

Home— London, England.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, and investigative reporter. Worked for World in Action, Granada TV.

WRITINGS:

The Press and Political Dissent, Pluto Press (Wolfeboro, NH), 1986.

(With Richard Norton-Taylor)Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting, Hogarth Press (London, England), 1988.

(With Charles Tremayne)The Economic League: The Silent McCarthyism, National Council for Civil Liberties (London, England), 1989.

MPs for Hire: The Secret World of Political Lobbying, Bloomsbury (London, England), 1991.

(With Paul Halloran)A Bit on the Side: Politicians—Who Pays Them? An Insider's Guide, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 1994.

(With Paul Halloran)Thatcher's Gold: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995, published as Thatcher's Fortunes: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher, Mainstream (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2005.

The Ultimate Spin Doctor: The Life and Fast Times of Tim Bell, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1997.

(With Nick Fielding)Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism, Andre Deutsch (London, England), 2003.

(With Sandy Mitchell)Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption, and Cover-Up inside the House of Saud, Mainstream (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals and newspapers, including the London Guardian, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, and Sunday Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and investigative journalist Mark Hollingsworth is a frequent contributor to British newspapers. His book-length works have focused largely on British politics and on notable personalities in Great Britain's political arena. In A Bit on the Side: Politicians—Who Pays Them? An Insider's Guide, Hollingsworth and coauthor Paul Halloran delve into the British system of accountability between government advisors, members of Parliament, and the business and financial interests that might bias or sway their judgments, advice, and policymaking. Some declarations of these interests, particularly among members of the government advisory committees, are published annually and are readily available to the public. For members of Parliament, however, the information is more carefully guarded. Members of Parliament (MPs) are required to declare more than one-percent ownership of shares in a potentially conflicting business, and a register of such declarations is regularly published. However, the register is closely held within Parliament itself and can be inspected by the public only on-site at the House of Commons itself. With A Bit on the Side, Hollingsworth and Halloran bypass this difficult system of access and provide information on declarations gleaned directly from the register. They also offer a number of instructive anecdotes, details of the criteria for declaration in the register, and a critique of the declaration system. Government officials are listed by party, profession, parliamentary office, trade union sponsorship, company directorships, and other positions within relevant areas of business and industry. Their work helps interested members of the public construct lists of possible conflicts of interest among government officials. "This is an important book, not particularly because of its contents but because it raises awareness," commented reviewer Joe Collier in the British Medical Journal.

Hollingsworth and Halloran again team up for Thatcher's Gold: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher. The book is a biography of the son of famed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The authors trace Mark Thatcher's youth and school days, his early professional career, and his development into a business broker of deals that Halloran and Hollingsworth identify as sometimes shady. The authors state that Thatcher "was a man prepared to be a middleman for any commodity," noted Jonathan Sale in the New Statesman & Society. Sale further observed, "The trouble with the book is that Mark is a boring yuppie of limited ability and, without the accident of his parentage, would have been lucky to rate an entry in his local telephone directory." However, Sale concluded, the book "does tell an intriguing yarn, not least because of the light it casts on Maggie herself."

Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption, and Cover-Up inside the House of Saud, written with Sandy Mitchell, tells the harrowing story of Mitchell's two-year incarceration in a brutal Saudi jail for a series of bombings that he did not commit. A Bookseller reviewer called the book a "damning account of corruption" in the highest levels of the Saudi government.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bookseller, February 4, 2005, review of Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption, and Cover-Up inside the House of Saud, p. 36.

British Medical Journal, October 29, 1994, Joe Collier, review of A Bit on the Side: Politicians—Who Pays Them? An Insider's Guide, p. 1173.

Food Technology, winter, 1987, review of The Press and Political Dissent, p. 902.

New Statesman, March 27, 1997, John Cole, review of The Ultimate Spin Doctor: The Life and Fast Times of Tim Bell, p. 49.

New Statesman & Society, October 25, 1991, Ma Barker, review of MPs for Hire: The Secret World of Political Lobbying, p. 36; May 19, 1995, Jonathan Sale, review of Thatcher's Gold: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher, p. 38.

Parliamentary Affairs, July, 1997, John Corner, review of The Ultimate Spin Doctor, p. 487.

Spectator, June 24, 1995, Paul Foot, review of Thatcher's Gold, p. 37; November 20, 1999, review of Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism, p. 48.

Times Literary Supplement, February 11, 2000, Ken Robertson, review of Defending the Realm, p. 36.