According to the Henry Hitchings in the TLS, "Jonathan Meades has been compared favourably to Rabelais and flatteringly to Swift.  The truth is that he outstrips both in the gaudiness of his imagination."

 

He was born in Salisbury and educated there and in the west of England.  He subsequently went to RADA.  When he left, the Principal, Hugh Crutwell, told him: "You'll be a very successful character actor - when you're middle aged."  Expecting to be out of work for a couple of decades  he began writing.  Many years later Crutwell said "I was right - all I didn't know was that the character would be called Jonathan Meades."

 

He is the author of several books including three works of fiction – FILTHY ENGLISH, POMPEY and THE FOWLER FAMILY BUSINESS - and two anthologies of journalism PETER KNOWS WHAT DICK LIKES and INCEST AND MORRIS DANCING.  His next book, published by Unbound, is a collection of essays entitled MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS.  He is currently working on a book entitled AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MYSELF.

 

He has written and performed in some sixty television shows on predominantly topographical subjects such as self-built shacks, the utopian avoidance of right angles, the lure of vertigo, the deleterious effects of garden cities, the buildings occasioned by beer, Birmingham’s appeal, megastructures, Worcestershire, the everyday surrealism of Belgium: certain of these are available on The Jonathan Meades Collection DVD. 

 

Magnetic North (2008) - a journey from Flanders to Helsinki - was described by Robert Hanks in the Independent as having ‘a sweep, an intellectual confidence and a sense of mischief you won’t find anywhere else on TV. Meades is an artist of television.’

 

The 2009 series Off Kilter was described by Simon Heffer in the Daily Telegraph as ‘a masterpiece’. He has been described by Will Buckley in The Observer as ‘by furlongs the most erudite broadcaster of the age’ and by Time Out as ‘a heavily sedated Sir Geoffrey Howe.’ 

 

He lives in Marseille.