Michael Paraskos

Michael Paraskos was born in Leeds in the north of England. He is an occasional contributor of articles to newspapers and magazines, including The Spectator and Art Review, and he is even more occasionally a contributor to radio and television programmes. He has reviewed exhibitions for Front Row on BBC Radio 4, and appeared on Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου, BFBS, BBC Radio Wales and BBC North, discussing topics ranging from modern art in the middle east to Yorkshire nationalism.

On Channel 4 television he endured what he describes as “the most embarrassing moment of my life” by taking on the role of Professor Yorkshire in an impromptu game show broadcast on The Big Breakfast. Dressed in traditional Yorkshire costume, Michael’s job was to judge whether the residents of a York housing estate could tell the difference between a Yorkshire whippet and an Italian greyhound. Bizarrely for someone who has been described by others as a ‘kind of anarchist writer’, he has also been an advisor on such unlikely BBC television programmes as Songs of Praise and Crimewatch. However he doubts either of these does his street cred much good so he tends to leave them off his biography.

He was the editor of the book Re-Reading Read: New Views on Herbert Read, and author of Steve Whitehead, Regeneration and Herbert Read: Art and Idealism, amongst others. His major study of the leading contemporary British painter, Clive Head, was published in 2010 to coincide with a major exhibition of Head’s work at the National Gallery in London, and subsequently he was invited to guest-curate a special intervention by the artist Clive Head amongst the Poussins at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.