Ian Bell (journalist)

Ian Mackay Bell was born on 7 January 1956 in Edinburgh, Scotland.[1] His father was Ian Bell, a fireman on steam trains and a trade unionist.[2][3] His mother was Helen Bell (née Mackay), a personnel worker with Edinburgh city water board.[3] He lived on the Magdalene council estate and attended Portobello High School.[4] He studied English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with an honours degree.[2] He was a great-great-nephew of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary.[5]

Bell applied to a graduate trainee scheme at The Scotsman but instead joined the newspaper in 1978 as a library assistant and shortly after became a sub-editor.[2][3] He also wrote articles for the paper on rock and pop music, from the end of the seventies until 1986, when he became the literary editor.[2][3] He was an active member of the National Union of Journalists, where he was Father of the Chapel, a role equivalent to shop steward.[3] After a labour dispute where journalists were locked out, he left the Scotsman in 1987.[6][7]

He next worked as sub-editor at The Herald and The Sunday Herald.[7] As a freelancer, he also wrote for The Scotsman. In the late 1990s he worked at the Daily Record, having been persuaded by the editor Martin Clarke.[4] He also worked on The Times Literary Supplement.[6] He worked as the editor of the Scottish edition of The Observer 1988–1990.[8][9] Bell was an advocate of Scottish independence over the course of his career.[2][8][10][11]

Bell wrote a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, Dreams of Exile which was published by Mainstream Publishing in November 1992.[12][13] He wrote a two-volume biography of Bob Dylan. Once Upon A Time is a 590-page work which covers Dylan's career up to and including his fifteenth studio album "Blood on the Tracks".[14] The second volume Time Out of Mind was 570 pages.[15][16][17] He wrote a novel Whistling in the Dark which was listed in catalogues by Mainstream in 1992 as "coming soon" but remained unpublished, with Bell reworking it several times.[2][3]

Dreams of Exile was awarded Best First Book by the Saltire Society in 1994.[13]

Bell won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 1997.[2][18]

He was named columnist of the year at the Scottish Press Awards in 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2012.[19][20][21][22]

Bell's second marriage was to Mandy Henriksen, an artist, and they had one son, Sean who became a journalist.[2][3] He was a supporter of Hibernian F.C.[4]

He lived in Coldingham, in the Scottish Borders, for several years. He was there when he suddenly became unwell and died on 10 December 2015, at the age of 59.[23] A memorial service was held on 22 December at Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh.[24]

In April 2017 plans for an award for young writers being set up in his name was announced.[25] The award itself was launched in September 2017.[26]