Robin Oakley

Oakley was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and Brasenose College, Oxford.

He started his career on the Liverpool Daily Post where he became Political Editor. He was then the Crossbencher columnist and assistant editor on The Sunday Express and was assistant editor of the Daily Mail from 1981 to 1986. Between 1986 and 1992, he was a columnist and political editor for The Times. He then moved to the BBC, where he was Political Editor between 1992 and 2000. During this period he regularly presented political news items on BBC television news. His predecessor as BBC Political Editor was John Cole, and he was succeeded in 2000 by Andrew Marr. After leaving the BBC, Oakley became CNN's European Political Editor. He is also an expert in horse racing, and has written the Turf column in The Spectator since 1994, as well as being the racing correspondent of the Financial Times for several years.

His 2000 book "Valley of The Racehorse" is a story of the racing community in the Lambourn valley. His 2001 book Inside Track is based on his experiences as a political journalist.

He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for his services to political journalism.[2]

• Oakley, Robin (2000). Valley of the racehorse.
• — (2001). Inside track.
• — (4 October 2008). "Team tactics". The Spectator. 308 (9397): 57. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2008.

• Robin Oakley retires early from the BBC