Michael Wynn-Jones

Michael Wynn-Jones (born September 1941^[1]) is a Welsh writer, editor and publisher. He is the joint majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club, with his wife, the former television cook Delia Smith.^[2][3]

Early life

Wynn-Jones studied at Lancing College and the University of Oxford, and is a writer, editor and publisher.^[4][5][6] His father was a Church of England vicar in Tivetshall and Redenhall with Harleston, and his mother was a teacher at Diss Grammar School.^[7][8] Wynn-Jones married Delia Smith in 1971 in Stowmarket, Suffolk.^[4][9][10] Wynn-Jones established New Crane Publishing, which produced some of Smith's books as well as the Sainsbury's magazine, which Wynn-Jones edited.^[11][12] In 2005, New Crane Publishing was sold to Seven Publishing for around £7 million; Smith had been working as a consultant for the publishing company.^[13][14] Wynn-Jones was the former deputy editor of the Daily Mirror's midweek colour supplement Mirror Magazine, during which time in 1969 it hired Delia Smith in her first role as a cookery writer.^[10][15] In 1972, George Gale appointed Wynn-Jones as deputy editor of The Spectator, and he has also worked for the Twentieth Century and Nova magazines.^[9][5] Wynn-Jones has also written many books, including The Cartoon History of Britain, George Cruikshank: His Life and London about George Cruikshank, and 100 Years on the Road: A Social History of the Car.^[9][16] In her autobiography, Brigid Keenan thanked Wynn-Jones for asking her to write a column on expats for him in the Sainsbury's magazine.^[17]

Norwich City

Wynn-Jones attended his first Norwich City F.C. match in 1953.^[7] In 1997 he became the current joint majority shareholder of Norwich City F.C. with his wife Delia Smith.^[4][18][19] In Tales From The City, a series of books about the history of Norwich City F.C. published in 2015, Wynn-Jones says that in 1996 former majority shareholder Geoffrey Watling invited them to make a loan to the club, in exchange for board of directors positions at the club. They later purchased Watling's shares in the club, making them majority shareholders, and in 1998, Wynn-Jones and Smith owned 63% of the club's shares.^[20] By 2006, their share in the club had reduced to 57%,^[21] and in 2015 their share had reduced again to 53%.^[22] In 2013, the pair wrote off £2.1 million of debt that the club owed them, as part of a £23 million reduction in the club's deficit;^[23] it has been estimated that Wynn-Jones and Smith have invested around £12 million into the club since 1996.^[24] In the 2015–16 season, Wynn-Jones and Smith's estimated worth was reportedly £23 million, the least of any Premier League club owners.^[25][2] Roy Waller wrote of Wynn-Jones and Smith that they are "crucial to the club's success", as they invested a lot with "very little return"; Waller noted that Wynn-Jones attends every Norwich match, both home and away, and often chose to sit with the fans during matches, rather than being in the directors' box.^[26]

References

This page was last edited on 4 September 2023, at 13:23