BIO AND PRESS PHOTO

(Photo: David Channer)MICHAEL HENDERSON, journalist, broadcaster and author, lives in Westward Ho! North Devon. He returned to Britain at the end of 2000 after 22 years in the United States mostly in Portland, Oregon. In the United States he contributed articles to newspapers all over the country, did more than 1,000 radio talks and was presenter for commercial, public and cable TV programs. In Oregon he was president of the World Affairs Council and of the English-Speaking Union and on the board of the United Nations Association and was co-founder of Oregon Uniting, a work for racial understanding. He has spoken throughout the United States to many organizations, church groups, university departments and service clubs. 

He has addressed groups around the world as varied as the Rotary clubs of London, New Delhi and Rabaul, New Guinea; the English-Speaking Union branches of Moscow and St Petersburg, New York and Washington, DC, and London; the World Affairs Councils of San Antonio, Texas and Brattleboro, Vermont, the annual meeting of the Governors General of the Caribbean as well as in Parliament House, Canberra and in the House of Commons. Since returning to Britain he has spoken to dozens of audiences in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In December 2009 he addressed a session of the Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne and in February 2010 he was a featured speaker at the Munich International Peace Conference.  His Munich speech is available in German (PDF) by clicking here.

He has written eleven books, including No Enemy To Conquer - Forgiveness in An Unforgiving World and See You After the Duration – the Story of British Evacuees to North America in World War II which has a foreword by the distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert. Michael, with his brother Gerald, was one of more than three thousand British children evacuated to the United States for safety during World War 11, living five years in New England. His book Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate which has been strongly endorsed by Archbishop Tutu has also been published in Russian and German. An earlier book All Her Paths Are Peace – Women Pioneers in Peacemaking has a foreword by the Dalai Lama and was also published in Chinese. Two of his books were launched at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, and one at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He is author of a chapter on Initiatives of Change in a book Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding published in 2003 and a chapter in People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society published in 2005. A Great Gamble - Turning Enemies into Friends contains six radio broadcasts on Radio Dawn, Nottingham in 2006, with a foreword by Imam Musharaff Hussain.

He has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists since 1963 and was on its London District Committee. He is a member of the London Press Club, of the West Country Writers Association, of the International Communications Forum, of the English-Speaking Union and of The Pilgrims. In the United States he was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He has been for more than fifty years associated with Initiatives of Change (formerly known as MRA), served on its US board for 20 years and was for 35 years on its British Council.

He is the author of the words of many songs and was the co-author of three musical revues including GB which ran in the West End. As a teenager he worked backstage on Broadway and in Hollywood, later acting in many plays in a dozen countries. He has been producer or script writer of videos and done voiceovers for films and videos. He has done the occasional talk for BBC Radio Devon and is a columnist for For A Change magazine and for the websites www.spiritrestoration.org and www.barclaypress.com.

(Photo: ©Karen Elliott Greisdorf Photography)Awards for his writing and speaking include three George Washington Honor Medals from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

He is a keen sportsman, having played football and ice hockey until he was sixty and is now playing veteran tennis and is in the Devon 75-year-old team.

He has been married to Erica for more than 40 years and they have one daughter Juliet, who taught Spanish at Westridge School, Pasadena, California, for eight years and is now on the faculty at the Hotchkiss School, Connecticut, and has two young granddaughters, Lola and Lucy.

See Michael's top ten reads, online at the Book Depository by clicking here.

(Photo: David Channer)Michael Henderson signing copies of his book at book launch in Caux (Photo: Maria Grace)

Michael Henderson speaking at the Munich International Peace Conference

Michael Henderson speaking at Greencoat Forum (Photo: Sulaiman Shah)