Best known for his appearances on the BBC-1 quiz show, Have I Got News For You, Ian Hislop was born in Wales in 1960 and subsequently studied English Language and Literature at Oxford.  He has written for the Spectator, the Mail on Sunday, the FT, the Guardian and Literary Review.  Most of his time however is devoted to editing Private Eye - a post he has held since 1986.  Under Hislop, the magazine recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, fought off a decade-long libel action brought against the magazine by a Cornish accountant and became Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine.  He is also a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, a regular on BBC-2's Late Review and writes for television in conjunction with old friend, Nick Newman. He was also Chairman of the Judges for the Blue Peter Book Awards this year and a judge for the previous two years. He is currently working on a programme for BBC Radio 4 about the patron saints of the UK and Ireland.  He lives in Kent with his wife Victoria, son William and daughter Emily.

Ian lists some of his favourite authors as George Eliot, George Orwell, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, Evelyn Waugh, A G Macdonell, William Boyd, Shiva Naipaul, Robertson Davies, A N Wilson, Barry Unsworth, Tom Wolfe and Carol Shields