Barbara Amiel

Barbara Amiel 2013

Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel , Baroness Black of Crossharbour (born December 4, 1940 in Watford , Hertfordshire , Great Britain ) is a British-Canadian journalist and writer. She has been married to the (former) Canadian press tsar Conrad Black since 1992 .

Early years

Barbara Amiel was born in 1940 in north London to the lawyer Harold Amiel and his wife Vera. The family was of Jewish origin. Harold Amiel had an affair with another woman and so her parents' marriage ended in divorce in 1948 when Barbara Amiel was just eight years old. Vera Amiel remarried in 1952 and emigrated to Hamilton , Canada with her husband Leonard that same year . Barbara grew up there with her sister Ruth and her two half-brothers.

During her time in England, Barbara Amiel first went to North London Collegiate School and later to a private school for girls in Edgware , Barnet , Greater London . According to the self-portrayal in her autobiography “Confessions”, Barbara Amiel - after her parents moved to nearby St.Catherines - had to look after herself from the age of fourteen, lived as a “street child”, kept herself afloat with low-paid jobs, was forced into to move into a dormitory that also accommodated prostitutes. (Contrary to their own account, however, schoolmates testify that she continued to live with her family.) Later in Canada, Amiel studied philosophy and English at the University of Toronto .

Numerous marriages

In 1959, Barbara Amiel married Gary Smith. The marriage ended in divorce. From 1974 to 1979 she was married to the writer and journalist George Jonas for the second time . With Jonas Amiel wrote the book By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter , which won the 1978 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Her third marriage was in 1984 to David Graham, a television businessman. That marriage ended in divorce in 1988.

In July 1992 she married the media tycoon Conrad Black (later Lord Black of Crossharbour). This marriage, which continues to this day, has received various interpretations. Conrad Black described his relationship with Barbara Amiel as follows: “Barbara is the fulfillment of all my dreams.” Or in the superlatives of male tastelessness: “Horizontal as good as vertical!” And: “Naked better than in clothes!” George Bloomfield - a former lover of Barbara Amiel - said on the occasion of the marriage: "She - Barbara - is at the center of the world she always wanted. The world of words. And she's living with the man who OWNS it. " ( " She - Barbara - is now at the center of the world she has always longed for. The world of words. And she now lives with the man who OWNS this world. " ) Her fourth marriage brought Barbara Amiel not only " the world of words " , but also extraordinary wealth, a new column in The Daily Telegraph , a little later the baroness title and access to - by her so admired - high society .

Publications (by Barbara Amiel)

• By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter . 1977, to George Jonas (The authors were married at the time.)
• Confessions . Macmillan of Canada, Toronto 1980 ISBN 0-7705-1841-9
• Celebrate Our City. Toronto, 150th Anniversary , with Lorraine Monk. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1983 ISBN 0-7710-6085-8
• East and West: Selected Poems. With a profile of the poet George Faludy. Hounslow Press, Toronto 1978

Publications (about Barbara Amiel)

• Tom Bower: Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge , Harper Press

Web links

• Quotes from Barbara Amiel
• Barbara Amiel in nndb (English)
• The Guardian - Profile Barbara Amiel (Engl.)