About me

I’m blogging here about Politics, History and Architecture. I keep a close eye on London (particularly Greenwich, where I lived for 30 years until 2014), Europe, the US – and my current home county of Northamptonshire.

I’m a freelance writer, lecturer, trainer and consultant, specialising in biography, history, architecture, politics and public services.

My book on the John Vassall spy case – Sex, Spies and Scandal: The John Vassall Affair – was published in January 2024. It tells the story of John Vassall, a clerk at the Admiralty in London, who was unmasked as a Soviet spy in September 1962. After being photographed in compromising positions while working at the British embassy in Moscow, Vassall was blackmailed into handing British defence secrets over to his Soviet handlers for seven years. With access to newly released MI5 files and interviews with people who knew Vassall from the 1950s until his death in 1996, this book sheds new light on a neglected spy scandal. Despite having been drugged and sexually assaulted by the KGB in Moscow, as a gay man John Vassall was shown no mercy by the British press or the courts. Sentenced to eighteen years in jail, he served ten years, despite telling MI5 everything. Once released, he found that many of his old friends and lovers had been persecuted or dismissed from the civil service in Britain, America and Australia. Unlike the Cambridge Five, who courted attention, after leaving prison Vassall changed his name to avoid the media and lived quietly in London. The book can be bought here: https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/sex-spies-and-scandal. You can read a review of the book in The Times here, and listen to an interview with me on Talk Radio Europe here.

In 2018-2019 I researched Court Number One, a new history of the Old Bailey’s most famous courtroom and its trials, written by my brother Tom Grant and published by John Murray, which was named as both a Times and Telegraph book of the year. In 2020-2021 I helped to research The Mandela Brief – a biography of Sidney Kentridge, a veteran South African advocate who acted in many anti-Apartheid trials in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Since 2015 I have helped many clients with their own biographies, as a ghostwriter, researcher and editor, both directly and through the StoryTerrace agency.

I have 20 years’ experience at the frontline of politics and planning. I’ve written about contemporary development for the Guardian and Building Design as well as on this Blog (for more details about my journalism and other writing, please see the media coverage and publications page). I’ve recently written for The Times about encountering – and defeating – Liz Truss twice at local elections in the London Borough of Greenwich in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Until 2014 I was a Labour councillor in Greenwich for 16 years (representing Blackheath Westcombe, always one of London’s most marginal wards: you can read my councillor blog here). I worked as a Labour Party organiser in day-to-day charge of the 2005 general election campaign, and the 2006 local election campaign. I worked as senior researcher for Nick Raynsford MP, a former Minister for London, between 2008 and 2012, and in 2013 I received a Labour Party Merit Award for political and community service.

I was Chair of Greenwich’s Planning Board (and the borough’s design champion) from 2006 to 2010. I oversaw the decision-making process for, and improved the design quality of, many new developments in Greenwich, Woolwich, Kidbrooke, the Peninsula, Charlton, Eltham, Blackheath, Thamesmead and Deptford. I had previously served as the council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, and had chaired both the Environment, Development and Regeneration Scrutiny panel (organising Greenwich’s successful annual public transport conferences) and the Leaseholder Forum. I served for ten years on the board of Blackheath Halls, one of London’s leading music venues, and was a governor at several Greenwich primary and secondary schools.

In 2012-13 I had a spell in the private sector: as an Account Manager at Indigo Public Affairs I helped lead community consultation on a number of large London developments including the residential conversion of Centre Point, The Stage in Shoreditch (a mixed-use development that put the remains of Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre on public display)and, more controversially, the redevelopment of much of the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant site, which I have blogged about here.

I have extensive policy development and training experience in the fields of urban design, local government and human resources. While a councillor at the Royal Borough of Greenwich I  I conducted policy reviews into planning gain, e-government and how the council disposes of surplus property, and I drafted a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy. I was a Member of Urban Design London’s Housing Design Network in 2009-10, and of CABE’s Thames Gateway Design Taskforce in 2007-2008.

From 2012 onwards I regularly delivered training courses for the NHS Leadership Academy with Cumberlege Eden and Partners, taught courses in the post-war history of London at the City Lit, and lectured at the Bartlett (University College London’s faculty of the built environment) and the University of Sheffield. I’ve worked in frontline roles at Elton Hall, a historic house near Peterborough, and at the National Trust. I put forward a report with recommendations for how the National Trust could improve its approach to employees with mental health needs, which led to a new training programme for managers being rolled out in autumn 2016.

I welcome feedback, tip-offs or suggestions for what you think I should cover on this blog. I Tweet @AlexGrant24 and can be emailed at alexhwgrant@yahoo.co.uk.

For professional enquiries, I am represented by Northbank Talent Management – see @NorthbankTalent and http://www.northbanktalent.com.

All material on this website is ©Alex Grant 2014-. Link to it by all means, but please contact me first if you want to reproduce any of its content.