Michael Hanlon, the editor who tries to guide the Northumberland Scribes through their twice-monthly meetings, was a journalist all his working life. During those 5O years he committed journalism in some 70 countries – as reporter, columnist, feature writer, editor, foreign correspondent and war correspondent. He began his career in his native England but since coming to Canada shortly after the Riel Rebellion, he has been a copy editor, entertainment editor and columnist at he Globe and Mail and a writer and editor of The Canadian Magazine, which at the time had the largest circulation of any publication in Canada.
At the Toronto Star, he appeared regularly as a columnist, feature writer, entertainment writer, European Bureau Chief (also covering the Middle East) and travel writer. His subjects as a travel writer have included African safaris, Australian train travel (and Aussie pie floaters), Jordanian Biblical sites, dining in Bermuda, Antarctica, Argentine tango, Rome during a jubilee and wine in New Zealand.
His ambition is to win the Tour de France and the Nobel Prize (he’s not fussy which one) in the same year.
