Mark Steel

Mark Steel is an English comedian, broadcaster, newspaper columnist and author. A stand-up comedian known for his left-wing beliefs (he was a long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party) he has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in The Guardian and The Independent. He is perhaps best known for presenting The Mark Steel Lectures, The Mark Steel Revolution, The Mark Steel Solution and Mark Steel's in Town.

Early life

Steel was adopted 10 days after he was born. His adoptive father worked in insurance and his mother was a housewife who supplemented the family's income through factory work and working as a lollipop lady. He had a close relationship with his adoptive parents. He grew up in Swanley, Kent. He traced his biological mother later in life but she said that she did not want to know him. She died soon after Steel attempted to contact her. He learned that she was from a Scottish working-class family with an active involvement in left-wing politics, and that she had subsequently married an Italian and lived in Rimini. She had met his biological father, an Egyptian Sephardic Jew whose family left Egypt after Gamal Abdel Nasser became president in the 1950s, at a party in London. His father had subsequently become a multi-millionaire trader on Wall Street, as well as a backgammon champion.