Hugh Miles is an award-winning journalist and author specialising in the Middle East. He is married with three children and lives in Cairo.
Hugh Miles was born in Jedda, Saudi Arabia in 1977. He studied Arabic at Pembroke College, Oxford University, and English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. His first and most formative experience of professional journalism was as an office boy at the Irish News of the World in Dublin. In 2000 while a student Hugh was chosen as The Times / Sky News Young Journalist of the Year.
During a one-year student exchange programme with the Sorbonne University in Paris, Hugh worked as the Nightlife Editor for Time Out Paris. Besides reviewing countless nightclubs, raves, restaurants and shops, his work included sampling every crepe house in Paris.
The day he graduated from university, Hugh flew to Beverly Hills, Los Angeles to work as Development Director for Oscar-winning Producer Michael Phillips (Taxi Driver, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Sting). He worked closely with leading Hollywood producers, packaging movies, raising finance, attracting talent and developing big budget scripts.
In 2002 Hugh returned to the UK to become a writer and freelance journalist. Since then he has authored two books, Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World (published Jan 2005) and Playing Cards in Cairo (April 2008). He has contributed to several more: Les Arabes parlent aux Arabes: La révolution de l’information dans le monde arabe (May 2009), Al Manakh 2: Export Gulf (April 2010), Revolution in the Arab World (Feb 2011, #1 Kindle Bestseller about the Middle East), National Broadcasting and State Policy in Arab Countries (Jan 2013), The Future of the Middle East – an e-book from Global Policy and Arab Digest (October 2017).
Hugh has worked with a wide variety of media including the BBC, New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Foreign Policy, London Review of Books, Mirror, Express, Sun, and others. His work has appeared on the front pages of many newspapers and been translated into several languages. He has written, produced and presented several radio and TV programmes for the BBC and Al Jazeera
Hugh's reporting on Saudi Arabia has appeared on the front pages of the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and New York Times and he has written, produced and presented several radio and TV programmes for the BBC and Al Jazeera English.
In 2015 Hugh broke the news that a senior Saudi prince was calling for regime change in Riyadh, a story that went around the world. In 2016 Hugh exposed the Saudi government's secret programme to kidnap Saudi defectors and dissidents living in Europe. In September 2017 Hugh produced the BBC TV documentary "Kidnapped! Saudi Princes". In January 2018 Hugh was Specialist Producer on the critically acclaimed BBC 2 series "House of Saud - Family at War"
He has also worked with the BBC Newsnight team on investigations in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. In October 2018 he was one of a team of journalists who made the BBC fast turnaround documentary "Saudi Crown Prince on Trial" about the fallout from the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Hugh has won several awards for his work including The Times / Sky News Young Journalist of the Year Award 2000; First Prize in the “Grand Prix du Livre Des Dirigeants” Categorie Livre d’Investigation 2006; and an honourable mention in the 2014 Young Stationers’ Prize for achievement and promise in journalism and publishing.
Since 2012 Hugh has served on the Board of Directors of MEBCS, an Egyptian NGO that oversees the management of the Maadi British International School, the leading UK primary school in Egypt.
Hugh is the Director of Al Shafie Miles, a boutique business consultancy which uses a network of Middle East experts to help corporate clients do business in the Arab world.
Hugh is the editor of ArabDigest.org, an online club where business leaders and experts on the Middle East and North Africa come together to discuss the issues in the region that matter most.
