Born in Hampstead, London, into a liberal Jewish family, Spanier was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge.^[1] After completing national service in the British Army, he began his journalism career at the Yorkshire Post before joining The Times in 1957.^[1]

At The Times, Spanier held various positions, including Commonwealth correspondent and Europe economics specialist.^[1] In 1971, he was named European Journalist of the Year by the Association of European Journalists.^[1]^[2] In 1974, he became the newspaper's diplomatic correspondent, notably declining the individual briefing typically provided by the Foreign Office.^[1]^[2]

Following Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of The Times, Spanier left the publication in early 1982.^[1] He then worked as a diplomatic correspondent for LBC Radio and Independent Radio News.^[1] Spanier also contributed to chess journalism for the newspaper Today and later for the Daily Telegraph.^[1] His written works include Total Poker (1977), Easy Money (1987), and The Little Book of Poker (1998), which compiled his poker columns.^[1]^[2]

Spanier was married to fashion journalist Suzy Menkes in 1969, and they had three sons and a daughter who died in infancy.^[1]

Biography

References