Background
Jessel, the son of one-time The Times defence correspondent Bobby Jessel, who died aged 37, and Penelope Blackwell (later Dame Penelope Jessel), attended the Dragon School in Oxford.
Jessel, the son of one-time The Times defence correspondent Bobby Jessel, who died aged 37, and Penelope Blackwell (later Dame Penelope Jessel), attended the Dragon School in Oxford.
Balliol College; Dragon School. Shrewsbury School.
He had previously worked, after leaving university, for The Times of London as a reporter and education correspondent. Before joining the British Broadcasting Corporation foreign staff he worked as reporter and again education correspondent. He spent four years at Balliol gaining a first in Mods and a Third in Greats where his inability to cope with the philosophy aspect proved catastrophic.
As a British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent he was a prolific contributor to From our Own Correspondent and at the time of his firing by someone called Cramer in 1995 claimed to have sent more material than anyone in the programmne"s long and distinguished history.
He remained with the British Broadcasting Corporation as a freelance after ceasing to be a staff correspondent and broadcast after the death of Princess Diana in Paris. He later worked for AFP as a translator and sub-editor, and taught at the now-defunct Journalists in Europe Fund as well as in Kosovo, Algeria, Albania, Georgia and Liberia.
He worked extensively as an editor for the Organization of European Cooperation and Development.