Jake Wallis Simons is an award-winning British journalist and novelist. In December 2021, he was appointed Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, where he has become known for publishing a number of world exclusives about the Mossad, including the inside story of the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and a major three-part sabotage operation in Iran.
In addition, he is a writer for the Spectator, a commentator for Sky News and a broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.
Previously he was Associate Global Editor for the Daily Mail Online, and a features writer for the Sunday Telegraph. He has also worked for the Times, the Guardian, CNN, the BBC and other outlets.
Although his experience spans everything from features to columns, Jake has tended to focus on foreign news. He has reported from all over Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, covering breaking news, investigations and everything in between, often in hostile environments. His exclusive reporting on stories like the Bataclan attacks in Paris, the fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka made headlines in multiple publications all over the world.
Jake has also published a number of political scoops. In 2015, he was the first journalist to expose Jeremy Corbyn’s links to extremists and conspiracy theorists. Among other key disclosures, in August 2018 he revealed Mr Corbyn’s comments that British Zionists ‘don’t understand English irony’, which dominated international headlines.
Jake has presented numerous radio documentaries for the BBC on a variety of subjects, including private detectives and Interpol, as well as television for BBC Breakfast. In addition, he has appeared regularly on BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent.
As a Features Writer at the Sunday Telegraph, Jake wrote Meet the Settlers, a longform multimedia story that won and was shortlisted for a range of awards, including the British Press Award. His work has appeared in international outlets including CNN, POLITICO, Newsweek, Haaretz and La Repubblica.
Jake has written four novels, including the bestselling The English German Girl, which tells the story of the Kindertransport. It won the Fiction Uncovered prize and received widespread critical acclaim.
Jake holds a First in English from St Peter’s College, Oxford and a PhD in Creative Writing from UEA, and has lectured at Oxford and elsewhere. He is a judge for the Reuters News Fixer Award, and a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University.