Distinguished friends
Maria Adebowale-Schwarte
Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia
Rajesh Agrawal
Riz Ahmed
Sughra Ahmed
Keith Ajegbo
George Alagiah
Claire Alexander
Kitty Arie
Peter Atkins
Julian Baggini
Zelda Baveystock
Haidee Bell
Richard Beswick
Dinesh Bhugra
Karan Bilimoria
Geoffrey Bindman
Karen Blackett
Nicholas Blake
Ian Blatchford
David Blunkett
Hina Bokhari
Mihir Bose
Alain de Botton
John Bowers
Stephen Briganti
Des Browne
Rickie Burman
Mukti Jain Campion
Paul Canoville
Gus Casely-Hayford
Saimo Chahal
Reeta Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti
Stephen Claypole
Robin Cohen
Linda Colley
David Crystal
Angélica Dass
Prakash Daswani
Sandie Dawe
Navnit Dholakia
Sherry Dobbin
Ibrahim Dogus
Lloyd Dorfman
Alf Dubs
John Dyson
Damien Egan
Graeme Farrow
Shreela Flather
Daniel Franklin
Edie Friedman
Manjit Singh Gill
Teresa Graham
Ann Grant
Susie Harries
Naomie Harris
James Hathaway
David Hencke
Sophie Herxheimer
Afua Hirsch
Michael Howard
Clive Jacobs
Kevin Jennings
Adrian Johns
Shobu Kapoor
Jackie Kay
Ayub Khan-Din
Francesca Klug
Tony Kushner
Kwasi Kwarteng
Kwame Kwei-Armah
David Kynaston
Brian Lambkin
Mark Lewisohn
Joanna Lumley
Michael Mansfield
Sue McAlpine
Neil Mendoza
Nick Merriman
David Miles
Abigail Morris
Hugh Muir
Tessa Murdoch
Sandy Nairne
Bushra Nasir
Susheila Nasta
Eithne Nightingale
John O’Farrell
Kenneth Olisa
Kunle Olulode
David Olusoga
Julia Onslow-Cole
John Orna-Ornstein
Herman Ouseley
Sameer Pabari
Ruth Padel
Panikos Panayi
Bhikhu Parekh
Nikesh Patel
David Pearl
Caryl Phillips
Mike Phillips
Trevor Phillips
Sunand Prasad
Kavita Puri
Trevor Robinson
Aubrey Rose
Michael Rosen
Cathy Ross
Salman Rushdie
Jill Rutter
Philippe Sands
Sathnam Sanghera
Konrad Schiemann
Richard Scott
Stephen Sedley
Maggie Semple
Saira Shah
Babita Sharma
Nikesh Shukla
Jon Snow
Sonia Solicari
Robert Soning
David Spence
Danny Sriskandarajah
Stelio Stefanou
Dick Taverne
Jane Thompson
Robert Tombs
Rumi Verjee
Patrick Vernon
Edmund de Waal
Iqbal Wahhab
Yasmin Waljee
Jake Wallis Simons
David Warren
Iain Watson
Henning Wehn
Nat Wei
Janet Whitaker
Gary Younge
Benjamin Zephaniah
My novel The English German Girl – which is about the Kindertransport – brought the experience of migration alive most vividly in my mind. It is, in my view, only right that a proper museum should be established to bring it alive for as many people as possible. If you think about it, migration is as fundamental to our identity as pints of ale, strawberries and cream and stiff upper lips. Neglecting that fact can only breed prejudice and social discontent; fully appreciating it, on the other hand, will contribute to a more enlightened British society.
Jake Wallis Simons
Jake Wallis Simons is Associate Global Editor for the Daily Mail Online. He also broadcasts for BBC Radio 4, and has written four novels.
As a journalist he writes features, comment and television reviews. In September 2013, he wrote and produced Meet the Settlers, the Telegraph’s first major multi-media documentary. This widely acclaimed 13,000-word feature incorporated text, video and pictures to tell the story of the Israeli settlers living on the West Bank.
Jake is a regular contributor to From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and presented the BBC Radio 4 documentary Crouching Low, Hidden Camera: Life as a Private Investigator.
His novels include the award-winning The English German Girl (2011), The Pure (2012), and The Exiled Times of a Tibetan Jew (2005), which was an Independent on Sunday Book of the Year. His most recent novel, Jam, which is set in a traffic jam on the M25, was published in 2014.
Born in London in 1978, Jake graduated with a first class degree in English from St Peter’s College, Oxford, and went on to gain a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Before joining theDaily Mail Online, he worked mainly for the Daily Telegraph and The Times. Jake is a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, and a visiting fellow at Bournemouth University.