Born in Sheffield on October 13 1938, he was head boy at Ampleforth College in York during his youth; later, he read law at Balliol College, Oxford, and worked for the Yorkshire Post in Leeds from 1961. In 1963, he spent a year as a Harkness fellow in the USA and also worked as a congressional fellow in 1964; one year later, in 1965, he joined the Sunday Times after returning to Great Britain and being recruited by Denis Hamilton, becoming chief leader writer in his second year on the paper, a position which he kept until 1977.
From 1973 to 1984, Young also was the paper's political editor, and established a Sunday column that made him famous; from 1981 on, he also held the position of joint deputy editor. However, Young's relationship with the Sunday Times cooled notably when Rupert Murdoch took over the paper in 1981, and the conflict culminated in a series of battles with editor Andrew Neil, particularly over the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, ultimately leading to Young leaving the Sunday Times and joining the Guardian in 1984.
Young continued to write a twice weekly political column at the Guardian until his death, and was widely acclaimed as one of the most important and influential figures in modern British journalism. Young also was a strong proponent of Europe, and sharply expressed his disappointment with the British governments' Europe-skeptical politics in his columns, most recently when prime minister Tony Blair chose to side with George W. Bush instead of his EU partners in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Nevertheless, despite these differences, Young remained on good terms with British government officials, including Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, a critical biography of whom, titled "One of Us", he published in 1989. He also wrote other books during his life, including "Blessed Plot: Britain And Europe From Churchill To Blair", which was published in 1998.
From 1989 on, Young was the chairman of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian and its sister publication, and helped the paper through important developments such as the purchase of the Observer.
Young was married twice in his life; his first wife, Helen Mason, with whom he had three daughters and a son, died in 1989, and a year later, in 1990, Young got married again, this time to American artist Lucy Waring. He died on September 22 2003 at the age of 64 after an arduous battle against cancer.
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