A Very Private Celebrity

John Freeman was one of Britain's most extraordinary public figures for over half a century: a renaissance man who constantly reinvented himself; a household name who sought complete anonymity. From advertising executive to war hero to MP tipped to be Prime Minister, Freeman then changed direction to become a seminal television interviewer and editor of the New Statesman. He subsequently remodelled himself yet again to become, in turn, an ambassador, a TV mogul, a university professor and, finally, in retirement, a well-known bowls player in south London. Freeman packed nine lives into his ninety-nine years, but all he really wanted was to be forgotten. The paradox of this private celebrity was captured by the very series that made him famous: Face to Face. While Freeman remorselessly interrogated the stars of his age, he himself sat in the shadows, his back to the camera. He was the grand inquisitor, exposing the personalities behind the public figures - but never his own. For ten years, Hugh Purcell has been tracking Freeman's story, trying to come face to face with this enigma who believed in changing his life - and his wife - every ten years. Why did Freeman want to forget what most old men would be proud to remember? Why did he try to erase himself from history? And yet, despite Freeman's best efforts to be ignored, his death in 2014 was marked by an enormous outpouring of appreciation and admiration. With his life now free from its shroud of inscrutability, the true story of this incredibly multifaceted man can finally be told.

Auteur

Now a journalist and biographer, Hugh Purcell spent most of his career making documentaries for BBC Radio and TV, ending up as managing editor of the TV documentary department - which was how he met John Freeman. In 1988, Purcell travelled to California to interview Freeman before the BBC repeated the famous interview series Face to Face, and this encounter sparked an enduring fascination. Purcell's New Statesman piece 'Face to face with an enigma' became a most-read article in 2013 and served as a basis for obituaries written on Freeman's death in December 2014. At the BBC, Purcell won a BAFTA (with Ken Burns) for a series on the American Civil War, and was awarded a Chevalier d'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1992 for services to European history films. He has written two previous biographies, as well as shorter factual books, and is a journalist for History Today and the New Statesman. Hugh lives in London and Wales.