Gavin Esler

Gavin Esler joined the presenting team in January 2003.

He has anchored BBC News 24 since 1997 and reported for news and documentary programmes across Europe, Russia, China and North and South America.

He began his career as a reporter on The Belfast Telegraph. He joined BBC Television as Northern Ireland reporter and then BBC TWO's Newsnight as a reporter/presenter.

He received a Royal Television Society award for his reports on the military build up in the Aleutian Islands, as part of the Reagan administration's New Maritime Strategy.

Gavin was appointed Washington Correspondent in 1989, and then Chief North America Correspondent a year later.

In charge of shaping and directing BBC coverage from North America, he has travelled extensively across the US and was accredited to the White House to cover the Bush and Clinton administrations.

He presented BBC News 24's comprehensive coverage of the President Clinton/Lewinsky hearings.

Gavin is also a presenter of the BBC World arts and culture programme Hardtalk Extra, plus Dateline London, also on BBC World, and the foreign affairs series Four Corners on BBC Radio Four.

He also writes a weekly column for The Scotsman newspaper.

Gavin is the author of three novels: Loyalties, Deep Blue and The Blood Brother.

He has also written a book on American discontent, The United States of Anger.