James May: biography, career, personal life

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

May James is a true legend of British television. A successful journalist and presenter, he is widely known for his love of cars. The co-creator of the famous Top Gear project is known by the nickname "Captain Snail", which he received for his extremely cautious driving style.

Early years

May James was born on January 16, 1963 in the British town of Bristol. In addition to the boy, the parents raised three more children. Family members come from a family of Armenian emigrants who once moved to England from Iran.

James May in his youth regularly traveled with his parents to various cities. Initially, the family settled in the Welsh village of Caerleon near the city of Newport. Here the boy went to elementary school. James May spent most of his youth in Rotherham, which is located in South Yorkshire. It is noteworthy that it was in this town that Jeremy Clarkson, the future partner of our hero on the television show Top Gear, began his career as a journalist.

In his youth, May was a chorister at the Winston School, where he learned to play the piano and flute in parallel with singing. Later a young manenrolled at Lancaster University. As a student, James studied at the Faculty of Musical Arts.

Career start

The path to success and recognition began for James May with the work of a journalist. After graduating from university in the early 80s, our hero was approved for the position of assistant editor-in-chief of the popular magazine The Engineer. The young man showed himself as a talented author and soon became an employee of the more successful publication Autocar.

Soon May was fired with a scandal. The fact is that the ambitious James quickly got bored of writing the same type of reviews on cars. In articles, the author began to encrypt hidden messages, highlighting the beginning of the lines in red letters. The editorial board did not notice the secret phrases for a long time. The idea of a journalist was discovered by readers. After composing the highlighted letters from each article, the audience identified a phrase that sounded like this: “Try to write a review yourself to understand what kind of hemorrhoids it is.” After the revelation of the scandalous story, the Autocar editors no longer wanted to cooperate with James.

Outrageous journalist switched to writing a book. Soon the public was presented with a work called "May on cars." Creation was a collection of the author's best articles.

Television work

In 1998, James was invited to test himself as the host of the television program Driven, which introduced the audience to the news in the automotiveindustry. In parallel, work was underway on the show Road Aggression School, which was broadcast on the popular BBC channel.

A year later, Top Gear was launched - a rather promising program. James May took over as host again. However, the show was destined to stay on the screens for less than a year. The reason was the low ratings. The creators of the project have changed the format, making the program more open to the viewer and diluting the broadcasts with a significant amount of good humor. Our hero returned to Top Gear after the start of the second season. May received the prestigious Automotive Journalist of the Year award in 2000 for his work on the television program.

In 2006, James, together with his colleague and friend Robert Clark, launched the Big Wine Adventure project. During the shooting of the series of programs, fans of high-class alcoholic beverages traveled around France. Later, the location changed to the famous wineries of California. In the final cycle of the programs, May and Clark continued to study the traditions of making alcohol in Britain.

Then the show "Men's Lab" started, which has been broadcast on BBC-2 since 2010. May's author's project aimed to restore the interest of the stronger sex in manual labor, the need to develop technical skills.

Private life

James May is not officially married. The TV star prefers an open relationship. At the moment, our hero is dating a fairly well-known choreographer Sarah Frater. According toAccording to journalists, a relationship began between the couple back in 2000. Surprising is the fact that James and Sarah are still together, but do not want to formalize a legal marriage. Initially, young people appeared in public from time to time. Later, the relationship grew into something more serious. The couple now live together in May's private mansion. The house is located in a remote area of Hammersmith in West London.

Thanks to the rapid development of his career, our hero has made a good fortune. James May currently has about 10 million pounds in his accounts. Part of the money was spent on the purchase of a luxurious mansion. In addition to his personal estate, the artist bought a building located nearby, where workers in the production previously worked. Here May organized a kind of workshop, from where he often leads his own television shows. According to James and Sarah, they feel absolutely happy in their personal estate.