Jonathan Myerson

Jonathan Myerson (born 12 January 1960 in Cardiff, Wales) is a British dramatist and novelist, writing principally for television and radio. His partner is novelist Julie Myerson.

Myerson's first play Making a Difference was commissioned by the Oxford Playhouse Company. A subsequent work, Diary of a Nobody was written for the National Theatre.^[1]

His latest work includes Number 10, a five-part series for BBC Radio 4 about a fictional Prime Minister and his staff in Downing Street.,^[2] including an episode in which Saint Helena is invaded by Angola.

His animated film of The Canterbury Tales was nominated for an Oscar (as animated short film) in 1999 and won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film ^[3] in addition to four Emmys.^[4]

He has also written scripts for several British television dramas including The Bill, Holby City, EastEnders, Jupiter Moon and The Legend of William Tell as well being involved in animation. He has written scripts for Testament: The Bible in Animation and The Canterbury Tales (as being head director and executive director) and voice directed Animated Tales of the World.

He is the author of two novels, Noise (1998) and Your Father (1999) and is a founding partner of "The Writer's Practice", a literary consultancy.

He was a Labour councillor for Clapham Town Ward, Lambeth from 2002 to 2006 ^[5]

He is currently the Course Director, MA in Creative Writing (Novels) at City University London's Journalism Department.

Family

He lives in South London with novelist Julie Myerson, and their two children, Chloe and Raphael. The family was the subject of the "living with teenagers" column in the Guardian newspaper.^[6] It was revealed in 2009 that their third child, Jake, had several years earlier been thrown out of the family home by the parents for smoking cannabis. Both he and his wife have been criticized for their lack of empathy and poor understanding of youth culture. In an article in The Guardian, Myerson reported that, upon hearing his son would achieve "A" grades at GCSE, he said: "He needs to fail one of these GCSEs. He needs to realise what he's doing.".^[7]

References