Tim Radford

Timothy Robin Radford was born in Rawene, New Zealand, on 9 October 1940, and grew up in Devonport, near Auckland.^[1] He was educated at Sacred Heart College, Auckland.^[1][2] At 16, he joined The New Zealand Herald as a reporter. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, where he worked for Fishing News, followed by jobs on local newspapers.^[3] He then had a stint as a civil servant, working at first as a Whitehall information officer,^[1] and subsequently working in journalism, notably for The Guardian newspaper, as well as being a contributor to other publications including The Lancet, New Scientist and The London Review of Books.^[4]

Radford worked for The Guardian for 32 years. Over the course of his career, he was letters editor, arts editor, literary editor, and science editor — holding the last post from 1980 until 2005.^[5] Radford became increasingly interested in climate change and wrote his first book The Crisis of Life on Earth in 1990.^[3] He also served on the UK committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

In 2011 he co-founded the Climate News Network website.^[3]

In 1964, Radford married Maureen Coveney. They had two children, William and Stella, and were married until Maureen's death in 2024.^[1][3]

Radford died on 10 February 2025, in Eastbourne, UK at the age of 84.^[1][3]

Radford won four Association of British Science Writers awards:^[6]

• Lifetime achievement award for services to science journalism, 2004
• Best feature on science subject in a national or regional newspaper, 2004, for Touching the Void, published in The Guardian on 22 July 2004
• Best communication of science in a non-science context, 2001, for Tell us, Solly, published in the London Review of Books on 20 September 2001
• Other awards in 1992 and 1997