Client Profile: Rory Cellan-Jones

By Ally Oliver

Rory Cellan-Jones is a journalist, author and broadcaster and a former BBC technology correspondent. His new passion? To bring journalistic rigour to health tech.

A career spanning 40 years at the BBC, crossing swords with Elon Musk’s ‘people’ and numerous trips to some of the world’s technology hotspots, Rory Cellan-Jones has had a fascinating life. But as ever, it didn’t all happen according to plan. In 2005 Rory was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in his left eye, and in 2018 with Parkinson’s Disease. Undeterred, his career has taken a new turn.

Since leaving the BBC in autumn 2021, Attivo client Rory has published a best-selling book and launched a subscription-based newsletter called Always On on the publishing platform Substack. He refers to this as a ‘tech notebook with an emphasis on health’ and it’s a fascinating read. However, on the day we speak, Rory, now 64, is in the weeds with his memoir.

The move from the buzzy newsroom to the solitude of the writer’s room has been quite a lifestyle shift.

Why a memoir (and why now)? “I have an interesting back-story in that I’m the result of an affair my mother had with a much younger man in the BBC drama department in the late ’50s while she worked as a secretary there between 1941 and 1974. She died 25 years ago, and when I cleared out her flat, I discovered that she’d kept every personal letter she’d ever typed or received.”

Rory recounts the unfolding drama of his mother’s fight for custody of her elder son, Rory’s half-brother and the communication she had with Rory’s father and his family. “Reading it all has changed my view of her. When she died, she was a bit of a batty old lady, and I was increasingly impatient with her because she used to ramble on so much. But she comes out of these letters as a great writer.”

Rory was raised by his single-parent mother, getting to know his biological father, James Cellan-Jones when he was 23. Only since he died in 2019 has Rory felt able to write about his unconventional background. As a technology journalist, the memoir has been quite a departure. His first book, Always On, Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era, came out in 2021.

It charts the Twitter Revolution (which sparked uprisings in Moldova, Tunisia and Egypt), AI, Test and Trace, and the smartphone’s impact on our lives. It’s interwoven with Rory’s experiences of dealing with the true innovators (and sometimes, the ‘bad guys’ of the industry) from Professor Stephen Hawking to Tim Berners-Lee. And he recounts how he upset Elon Musk’s ‘people’ by referring to Musk as ‘Brilliant but bonkers’ in one chapter.

“I’m still addicted to the news and check it constantly.”

The move from the buzzy newsroom to the solitude of the writer’s room has been quite a lifestyle shift. The adrenaline rush of chasing a story, for one, has dissipated somewhat. “I thought I’d miss it, but I did the job for 40 years. By the time I stopped, I’d grown tired of it. As a correspondent, you’re either working too hard or worrying that you’re not getting on the news enough. It’s permanent paranoia.”

“I’m still addicted to the news and check it constantly. I have insomnia related to my Parkinson’s, so it’s tempting to pick up my phone in the small hours. I’ve been addicted to Twitter. Elon Musk’s madness is like a soap opera.”

On the day we speak, he’s testing a device by a start-up called Charco Neurotech, which is supposed to help with the motor issues of Parkinson’s. While there are exciting new developments in the health tech sphere, Rory’s determined to shine a light on the charlatans out there too.

“Late in life, I’ve got to know a lot more about health. I get angry about scammers who offer things like dodgy natural aids, the ‘anti-science’ movement, who suggest 5G is responsible for Covid or melting your brain. It gives me the motivation to write about it.”

Staying fit in a bid to keep the worst of the Parkinson’s symptoms, such as fatigue and depression, at bay is of paramount importance for Rory. Dog walking might soon be on the agenda as just before Christmas, Rory and his wife, Professor Diane Coyle, took delivery of Sophie, a one-year-old rescue dog from Romania.
She has proved to be a viral hit with her own hashtag on Twitter and Instagram (#sophiefromromania). Proof from a former tech journalist that social media can be a huge force for good.

Words by Ally Oliver.

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