Gavin Esler

1953 -

Journalist, broadcaster and author. Born in Glasgow, Esler was raised in Clydebank before the family moved to Edinburgh, where he was educated at George Heriot's School. He studied literature at the Universities of Kent and Leeds before beginning his career as a reporter with the Belfast Telegraph in 1976. The following year he joined BBC Television as Northern Ireland reporter and becoming a reporter on the flagship news analysis programme Newsnight in 1982. He went on to present the regional news programme for London and the South East of England, before moving to the US as the BBC's Washington correspondent and then chief North America correspondent. Esler returned to presenting news in 1997, and as one of the anchors for Newsnight in 2003.

International viewers will have seen Esler on BBC World, presenting programmes such as Hardtalk and Dateline London. On radio, he presents Four Corners along with Anne Mackenzie (b.1960). He also writes a column for The Scotsman newspaper.

Esler has written novels including Loyalties (1990), Deep Blue (1992), The Blood Brother (1995) and A Scandalous Man (2008), together with The United States of Anger (1997), a portrait of America in the 1990s.

Esler is perhaps best known for his robust interview of controversial politician George Galloway in 2005.

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