User:Nnnnjjjj/sandbox/Nick Johnstone

Nick Johnstone is a journalist and author.

Early Years

Nick Johnstone was born in 1970 and studied English Literature at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, graduating in 1992.

Music Writing (1995-2002)

He started his career as a journalist in 1995, writing about music for the British music weekly paper, Melody Maker, the US monthly magazine Magnet, the British monthly magazine The Wire and the British music monthly magazine, Mojo, before moving on to cover music, film and literature, for newly founded monthly magazine, Uncut.

At Uncut, Johnstone specialised in interviewing heavyweights of music and film, including Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Perry Farrell, Lou Reed, John Cale, Rod Stewart, Elliott Smith, The Flaming Lips, Paul Westerberg, Chan Marshall, Mark Kozelek, Paul Buchanan, Richard Hell, Darren Aronofsky, Roman Polanski, Ethan Hawke, Werner Herzog, Harmony Korine, Jim Jarmusch and Julian Schnabel.

In tandem with his work at Uncut, Johnstone wrote the first unauthorised biographies of Patti Smith, Sean Penn and Abel Ferrara as well as a further unauthorised biography of Radiohead. His sweeping history book, The Melody Maker History of 20th Century Popular Music, was published after Melody Maker had folded, serving as a eulogy of sorts.

A Head Full of Blue (2002)

Johnstone moved away from writing about music and film with the publication of his memoir of addiction, depression and anxiety, A Head Full of Blue, in 2002, which came out sandwiched between Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and James Frey's A Million Little Pieces equally taboo busting memoirs.

Blue Notes (2003-2005)

Off the success of A Head Full of Blue, Johnstone became a columnist for The Guardian, penning the Blue Notes health column, which covered the gamut of mental health issues and themes and was a runner-up for the MIND Journalist of the Year award 2005.

He also wrote about art, fashion, lifestyle and health for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times of India, The Sydney Morning Herald, Dazed, Tank and The Observer, including interviews with Franca Sozzani, Solange Azagury Partridge, Vanessa Beecroft and a striking cover story on the topic of suicide. He was also a contributor to The Guardian's Op-Ed pages and the launch of The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog.

In parallel, Johnstone wrote further non fiction books, including a study of 1950s music called A Brief History of Rock & Roll, the first unauthorised biography of Amy Winehouse and unauthorised books about Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling and The Clash.

He also published a number of short stories in anthologies, wrote liner notes for albums by John Cale, The Del Fuegos and The BoDeans and appeared in documentaries about The Blue Nile, Patti Smith and Amy Winehouse. By 2010, his books had been translated in 13 languages. Promoting his books saw Johnstone appear on widely on BBC-1 Breakfast, ITN London Tonight, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and many radio shows.

University Lecturing (2006-2018)

After a cover story on depression, parenting and the Holocaust for The Guardian in 2011, Johnstone moved to writing on arts and culture in the Middle East for The Jewish Chronicle and became a faculty lecturer at the University of Westminster, teaching BA and MA Creative Writing. Previously, since 2006, he had also taught BA Journalism at UCA Epsom, London South Bank University, University of West London and MA Creative Non Fiction at City University.

Energy Healing (2015-2018)

Alongside teaching, Johnstone stepped away from journalism in 2014 after developing an interest in Energy Medicine and trained as a Reiki practitioner, a Psychic and an Intuitive Healer and launched a side gig as an Energy Healer in 2015, which led to his work being featured in The Evening Standard Magazine in 2017, who dubbed him "the Notting Hill fashion set's go to healer".

Trading Places (2018-)

In 2018, Johnstone left his lecturing posts and also stopped working as an Energy Healer, after teaching himself how the stock market works and becoming an individual investor, specialising in the trading of emerging markets and health sectors.

Return to Journalism (2019-)

In 2019, Johnstone made a comeback as a journalist, by appearing on the cover of The Financial Times, with an article telling the story of how he had taught himself to invest. A further two cover stories for The Financial Times followed in 2020, completing a trilogy of comeback cover stories. He has since also been writing about health for magazines and medical start-ups. Today, Johnstone lives with his wife and daughter in West London.