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Alistair Murray Moffat (born 16 June 1950, Kelso, Scotland) is a Scottish writer and journalist, former director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and former Rector of the University of St Andrews. [1]
Moffat graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1972 with an honours degree in medieval history. [2] He also attended the University of Edinburgh and the University of London, where he earned a Master of Philosophy degree in 1975. [3] [4]
Moffat was also active in student politics throughout his time at St Andrews, playing a leading role[ citation needed ] in the rectorial campaign of John Cleese, [5] who went on to become one of St Andrews' best loved rectors. [6]
At Edinburgh Moffat continued his involvement in student politics, campaigning with Gordon Brown,[ citation needed ] the second student elected rector of the University of Edinburgh. [7] [8] Moffat and Brown went on to campaign on a number of social and political issues including gay rights and the 1979 Edinburgh South by-election.[ citation needed ]
Moffat found early success after university, becoming Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976. Moffat's five-year tenure saw the festival grow into the largest arts festival in the world. [9]
Moffat left the Fringe in 1981 and joined STV, where he rose to become programme director, Chief Executive of Network Production and finally Chairman of STV.[ citation needed ] In 1989 he was appointed to the NSG, the group that controls UK wide scheduling for ITV. He left STV in 1999 to focus on writing.[ citation needed ]
During the 1970s and early 1980s Moffat wrote a number of papers focusing on education policy.[ citation needed ] His approach, recommending a renewed focus on primary education as the key to widening participation at secondary and higher levels, has since formed parts of the education manifestos of all three major parties in Britain.[ citation needed ]
Moffat's writing since 1999 has been focused mainly in the field of social history. Beginning with The Edinburgh Fringe (1978), he has written over forty books, [10] including the bestselling Tyneside, The Reivers and The Wall (all of which have since been remade as television series): [11]
Since leaving STV in 1999, Moffat has served as Director of the Borders Book Festival and Lennoxlove Book Festival, both of which he also founded. He has also maintained his interest in education, serving as Director of "Book Nation", a Scottish national literacy initiative, working alongside Sir Robert Winston and Margaret Drabble to improve literacy in Scotland.
On 28 October 2011, Moffat was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews. He was appointed for a three-year term, his period of office spanning the university's 600th anniversary celebrations which ran from 2011 to 2013. [12]
Moffat was the chief executive of the company BritainsDNA, which offered genetic analyses of the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal DNA of customers who were interested in their ancestry. Moffat's management and promotion of the company generated some controversy and criticism from some of the scientific community due to certain scientifically unfounded claims. [13]
On the BBC Today Programme , Moffat made some incorrect statements, including that 97% of men surnamed Cohen share a common genetic marker. [14] Geneticists at University College London including David Balding and Mark G. Thomas criticised these claims [15] as having no scientific basis and being little more than genetic astrology. [16] Balding and Thomas wrote a series of emails to the chief scientist at BritainsDNA, encouraging him to retract these inaccuracies. This was met by a legal threat from Moffat at their use of the term "fraudulent". [17] The content of these messages has been since published. [18] Moffat's claims about the Cohen genetic marker were ultimately retracted by the chief scientist of BritainsDNA, [15] and the BBC upheld a complaint about the programme. [13]
BritainsDNA was the trade name of one of several commercial companies that comprise The Moffat Partnership Limited, founded by Moffat and partners in 2012. [19] The other Moffat companies providing genetic testing included ScotlandsDNA (the first), IrelandsDNA, CymruDNAWales and YorkshiresDNA. [20] BritainsDNA ceased trading in 2017. [13]
Moffat was co-chairman and historian for the Great Tapestry of Scotland, a community arts project which produced the embroidered tapestry, designed by Andrew Crummy with contributions from around 1000 stitchers from across Scotland. It was unveiled on 3 September 2013 at the Scottish Parliament. [21]
Moffat met his wife Lindsay while both were students at the University of St Andrews. They were married in 1976 in the university's ancient St Salvator's Chapel, a privilege and tradition commonly reserved only for alumni, staff or their offspring. [22] The couple have three children, two of whom also attended St Andrews.
From 2009 to 2011 he served at the invitation of James Naughtie, the Chancellor of the University of Stirling, as Chancellor's Assessor on Stirling's University Court. [23] He resigned the position in October 2011 on being invited to stand for Rector of the University of St Andrews, an election which he won on 28 October 2011. [12]
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth estuary and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh had a population of 506,520 in mid-2020, making it the second-most populous city in Scotland and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The wider metropolitan area had a population of 912,490 in the same year.
St Andrews is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, 10 miles southeast of Dundee and 30 miles northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 as of 2011, making it Fife's fourth-largest settlement and 45th most populous settlement in Scotland.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.
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Kelso Abbey is a ruined Scottish abbey in Kelso, Scotland. It was founded in the 12th century by a community of Tironensian monks first brought to Scotland in the reign of Alexander I. It occupies ground overlooking the confluence of the Tweed and Teviot waters, the site of what was once the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh and the intended southern centre for the developing Scottish kingdom at that time. Kelso thus became the seat of a pre-eminently powerful abbacy in the heart of the Scottish Borders.
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William Scheves was the second Archbishop of St. Andrews. His parentage is obscure, but he was probably the illegitimate son of a royal clerk, John Scheves. Sixteenth-century accounts claim he spent several years abroad and studied at the University of Louvain. He spent several years at the University of St Andrews as an administrator. In his earlier ecclesiastical career, he had been clericus regiae and master of the hospital of Brechin. In 1474 he was provided unsuccessfully to the Archdeaconry of Dunblane, but by the beginning of 1477 he was Archdeacon of St Andrews and coadjutor (successor) and vicar-general of the archdiocese. After the deposition of Archbishop Patrick Graham in 1478, he succeeded to the archbishopric, apparently receiving the papal pall while in the presence of King James III and many of the nobility at Holyrood.
Carter Bar is a pass in the Cheviot Hills, on the Anglo-Scottish border. It lies north east of Carter Fell at the head of Redesdale, and is crossed by the A68 road as it runs north towards Jedburgh and Teviotdale.
Wark or Wark on Tweed is a village in the English county of Northumberland. It lies about 15 mi (24 km) south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
The Anglo-Scottish border is an internal border of the United Kingdom separating Scotland and England which runs for 96 miles (154 km) between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west.
Ross William Ford is a Strength and Conditioning coach for the Scottish Rugby Academy. He was previously a Scotland international rugby union player who played as a hooker. He made 110 test appearances for Scotland, making him their most-capped male player. He played in three World Cups and toured with the British & Irish Lions in 2009, making one appearance.
The ancient university governance structure in Scotland is the organisational system imposed by a series of Acts of Parliament called the Universities (Scotland) Acts 1858 to 1966. The Acts applied to what were termed the 'older universities': the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh. Together these four universities are commonly referred to as the ancient universities of Scotland. Whilst the Acts do not directly apply to the University of Dundee, the same governance structure was ordained for use by that institution in its royal charter.
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In 1972 he became the second student to be elected Rector.
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