# Toby Young
**Toby Young** (born 1963) is a British journalist, author, and free-speech campaigner who co-founded the Modern Review, wrote the memoir *How to Lose Friends and Alienate People*, co-founded the West London Free School, and founded and leads the Free Speech Union[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0) • [2](https://quillette.com/author/toby-young/). He sits in the [House of Lords](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-lords) as a Conservative life peer under the title Lord Young of Acton[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0) |
| Parents | Son of the sociologist Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington, a Labour figure who wrote the 1945 Labour manifesto and helped create the Open University[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school) |
| Education | Brasenose College, Oxford, B.A. with honors, 1986; Harvard University, 1987–88; Trinity College, Cambridge, 1988–90 (PhD not completed)[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0) |
| Best-known book | *How to Lose Friends and Alienate People*, a memoir of his unsuccessful period in New York journalism[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0) |
| Education ventures | Co-founder of the West London Free School (2011), the first free school to sign a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State for Education[5](https://www.teachsecondary.com/comment/view/what-i-learnt-at-school-toby-young) |
| Public office | Appointed to the Office for Students board in January 2018; resigned after eight days amid controversy over his writings and social media posts[6](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/09/toby-young-resigns-office-for-students) |
| Peerage | Lord Young of Acton, appointed to the House of Lords on the Conservative benches in January 2025[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html) |
| Current role | Founder and general secretary of the Free Speech Union[2](https://quillette.com/author/toby-young/) |
## Early life and education
Young is the son of **Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington**, a prominent Labour-aligned sociologist and institution-builder who wrote the 1945 Labour manifesto, founded the Consumers' Association and *Which?* magazine, and created the National Extension College, a prototype for the [Open University](https://www.edgepedia.org/open-university)[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). A family friend quoted by the *Guardian* said Toby was overshadowed in cleverness by his sister and "looked like somebody who couldn't cope in Michael's world"[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school).
His school record was mixed. At a comprehensive in Devon he obtained a C in O-level English literature and a grade one CSE in drama, and nothing else; after a spell on an Israeli kibbutz, and with tuition from his father, he added three more O-level Cs, then took A-levels at William Ellis school in London in its last years as a grammar school[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). He was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics after a curious episode: he had received a personal rejection letter, but an earlier circular telling him when to arrive led his father to persuade the college that it had a moral obligation to admit him[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). He took a first-class degree, then a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard and a Cambridge PhD place he abandoned for journalism[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0).
## Journalism
Young worked first at *The Observer*, winning a commendation in the [British Press Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-press-awards) for a piece on youth culture, then took a traineeship at *The Times*, from which he was sacked for hacking the newspaper's computer system and circulating senior executives' salaries around the office[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school).
In 1990, with the journalist [Julie Burchill](https://www.edgepedia.org/julie-burchill) and Cosmo Landesman, he founded the bi-monthly **Modern Review**, whose slogan was "low culture for highbrows": it had intellectual writers cover Madonna and *The Simpsons*[7](https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/20-questions-withtoby-young_24598/) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). Though more talked about than read, it was acknowledged by *Sunday Times* editor [Andrew Neil](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-neil) as the inspiration for that paper's Culture section; the magazine closed after a row among Young, Burchill, and Burchill's protégé Charlotte Raven[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school).
He then moved to New York as a celebrity journalist at *Vanity Fair*, an unsuccessful venture he chronicled in his memoir *How to Lose Friends and Alienate People*, which reviewers read as an exposé of American celebrity worship and the realities behind American claims to classlessness[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). A later bid to become a Hollywood screenwriter was recorded in a further book[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school). He wrote for right-leaning British outlets including *The Spectator*, where he was an associate editor, and the *Daily Mail*[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school) • [3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html).
## Free schools
Young became an early supporter of the free schools policy championed by education secretary [Michael Gove](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-gove), in which groups of parents and teachers set up state-funded schools independent of local authorities[8](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/29/toby-young-head-new-schools-network-nsn-free-schools). He co-founded the **West London Free School**, the first free school to sign a Funding Agreement with the [Secretary of State for Education](https://www.edgepedia.org/secretary-of-state-for-education)[5](https://www.teachsecondary.com/comment/view/what-i-learnt-at-school-toby-young). The secondary school opened in 2011, followed by a primary school in 2013 rated outstanding by Ofsted; the first GCSE cohort saw 76 percent achieve at least five grades of C or better including English and maths[8](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/29/toby-young-head-new-schools-network-nsn-free-schools).
The school's model was a "comprehensive grammar": a grammar-school curriculum of academic subjects, compulsory Latin in years 7 to 9, and competitive houses, delivered to an all-ability intake with priority for local children and a lottery for wider places[4](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school).
In October 2016 he was appointed director of the **New Schools Network**, a government-funded charity that lobbies for free schools and helps groups apply to open them; he took up the post in January 2017, promising to be "non-partisan" despite his own right-of-center views[8](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/29/toby-young-head-new-schools-network-nsn-free-schools).
## Office for Students appointment and resignation
In early January 2018 Young was appointed to the board of the **Office for Students**, the new higher education regulator for England, his first public office appointment[9](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/05/why-impulsive-vain-toby-young-wants-us-to-take-him-seriously). Critics highlighted crude and offensive tweets about women and past writings in which he described working-class students at Oxford as "universally unattractive" and argued for "progressive eugenics"[10](https://theweek.com/90822/toby-young-what-were-the-tweets-and-comments-that-led-to-his-resignation) • [11](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/26/no-10-advisers-meddled-in-toby-young-getting-ofs-role-finds-report). Prime Minister Theresa May initially backed him, saying his free schools work "led to him being appointed", while warning that further use of such language would cost him the post[12](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/toby-young-resigns-universities-regulator-office-for-students-resignation-controversy-distraction-theresa-may-a8148921.html).
Young resigned after eight days, writing in *The Spectator* that his appointment had "become a distraction from its vital work of broadening access to higher education and defending academic freedom"[6](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/09/toby-young-resigns-office-for-students). The commissioner for public appointments launched an inquiry into what he called the "serious failing" of appointing Young without examining his record of incendiary comments[13](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/toby-young-office-for-students-appointment-inquiry-launched). The resulting report criticized the Department for Education and the OfS for not scrutinizing his writings and found a high degree of direct meddling by ministers in his appointment[11](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/26/no-10-advisers-meddled-in-toby-young-getting-ofs-role-finds-report). Higher education minister [Sam Gyimah](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-gyimah) conceded there were "question marks, quite rightly, over the appointment"[14](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/feb/27/toby-young-office-for-students-appointment-questionable-minister).
In March 2018 Young resigned as director of the New Schools Network, citing media pressure, and also resigned from the Fulbright Commission; the [University of Buckingham](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-buckingham) stripped him of an honorary fellowship[15](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/mar/23/toby-young-quits-new-schools-network-citing-media-pressure) • [16](https://quillette.com/2018/07/23/the-public-humiliation-diet/).
## Free Speech Union and peerage
Young describes the episode that followed his resignation, in his own account, as the impetus for founding the **Free Speech Union** (FSU): "I realised it would be useful to have an organisation to turn to when your career is collapsing before your eyes", as he put it in a 2025 interview[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html). As founder and general secretary he runs a pressure group that defends people, including public figures disciplined over social media posts, in free-speech disputes[2](https://quillette.com/author/toby-young/) • [3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html).
The organization has drawn both funding and controversy from across the Atlantic. *Le Monde* reported in 2025 that the FSU had a budget of £2 million, employed about fifteen people, and had accepted a $250,000 donation from the United States whose identity Young declined to reveal, saying he did not know it himself; the same source had given $100,000 in 2021 to the FSU's now-closed American branch, money that passed through the bank account of an anti-abortion activist[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html). A 2026 *Guardian* report found the FSU had crowdfunded more than £60,000 for the legal case of Julian Foulkes, a 71-year-old retired police officer arrested over a social media post, with the case ultimately fought by a pro-bono lawyer[17](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/aug/18/toby-young-free-speech-union-60000-gbp).
Young was appointed to the House of Lords on the Conservative benches in January 2025 as Lord Young of Acton[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html). In parliament and in public he argues for First Amendment-style protections, describing a 31-month prison sentence given to a woman over an inflammatory tweet as "extraordinarily harsh"[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html).
## References
1. [Young, Toby 1963–, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/young-toby-1963-0)
2. [Toby Young – Articles & Essays, Quillette](https://quillette.com/author/toby-young/)
3. [« Si ça fait de moi une raciste, qu'il en soit ainsi… » : au Royaume-Uni, l'appel à la haine d'une nounou contre les migrants embrase le débat sur la liberté d'expression, Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/07/19/si-ca-fait-de-moi-une-raciste-qu-il-en-soit-ainsi-au-royaume-uni-l-appel-a-la-haine-d-une-nounou-contre-les-migrants-embrase-le-debat-sur-la-liberte-d-expression_6622113_4500055.html)
4. [Can Toby Young's free school succeed? by Peter Wilby, The Guardian (2011)](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/apr/05/toby-young-london-free-school)
5. [Comment: What I learnt at school – Toby Young, Teach Secondary](https://www.teachsecondary.com/comment/view/what-i-learnt-at-school-toby-young)
6. [Toby Young resigns from the Office for Students after backlash, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/09/toby-young-resigns-office-for-students)
7. [20 Questions With… Toby Young, WhatsOnStage](https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/20-questions-withtoby-young_24598/)
8. [Toby Young to take over as head of New Schools Network, The Guardian (2016)](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/29/toby-young-head-new-schools-network-nsn-free-schools)
9. [Toby Young: social media self-obsessive still battling with father's shadow, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/05/why-impulsive-vain-toby-young-wants-us-to-take-him-seriously)
10. [Toby Young: what were the tweets and comments that led to his resignation? The Week (2018)](https://theweek.com/90822/toby-young-what-were-the-tweets-and-comments-that-led-to-his-resignation)
11. [Ministers meddled in Toby Young getting OfS role, report finds, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/26/no-10-advisers-meddled-in-toby-young-getting-ofs-role-finds-report)
12. [Toby Young stands down from government post after just 8 days over misogynistic and homophobic comments, The Independent (2018)](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/toby-young-resigns-universities-regulator-office-for-students-resignation-controversy-distraction-theresa-may-a8148921.html)
13. ['Serious failing': inquiry to scrutinise Toby Young's OfS appointment, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/toby-young-office-for-students-appointment-inquiry-launched)
14. [Toby Young's OfS appointment was questionable – minister, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/feb/27/toby-young-office-for-students-appointment-questionable-minister)
15. [Toby Young quits New Schools Network, citing media pressure, The Guardian (2018)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/mar/23/toby-young-quits-new-schools-network-citing-media-pressure)
16. [The Public Humiliation Diet — Narrated by Toby Young, Quillette (2018)](https://quillette.com/2018/07/23/the-public-humiliation-diet/)
17. [Revealed: Toby Young free speech group crowdfunded over £60,000 for legal case fought by pro-bono lawyer, The Guardian (2026)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/aug/18/toby-young-free-speech-union-60000-gbp)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Relationships and social issues › Social movements and social issues › Social activists and public advocates › Human rights and whistleblower advocates › Surnames Me to Z*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license