James Hogg is a collaborator, biographer, and live host who specialises in sport and entertainment.
Born in the Yorkshire Dales, he began his writing career whilst working for the Yorkshire County Cricket Club where he spent several years masquerading as the club’s Commercial Manager. In between failed attempts at securing sponsors and smoking and drinking tea with Brian Close, James wrote two acclaimed biographies whilst at Headingley. The first, ‘What’s the Bleeding Time?’ discloses the life and times of the actor and naturalist James Robertson Justice and features a foreword by H.R.H The Duke of Edinburgh. The second, ‘Little Ern’: The Authorised Biography of Ernie Wise,’ was a collaboration with the writer of Hellraisers, Robert Sellers, as was James’s next book, ‘Hello Darlings!’ The Authorised Biography of Kenny Everett’. James left Headingley in 2012, after which the club began to flourish both on and off the pitch.
James’ first project as a ghostwriter was the Torvill & Dean international bestseller Our Life on Ice, which he wrote after approaching the pair at the start of 2013. In 2015 James contacted the actor and explorer, Brian Blessed, about the possibility of collaborating on a memoir, bringing to the fore Brian’s unique personality and skills as a raconteur. The result, Absolute Pandemonium, became one of the biggest selling non-fiction titles of the year and spawned a sequel called The Panther in My Kitchen.
In the last ten years alone James has either written or collaborated on over twenty titles, from Pru & Me, which he wrote with the late actor, Timothy West, and Bernard Who? the autobiography of the actor and national treasure, Bernard Cribbins, to the two motorsport bestsellers, Lights Out Full Throttle by Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert and How Not to be a Professional Racing Driver, by Jason Plato, both of which were shortlisted at the Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Awards.
In 2021 James formed a partnership with the former Haas F1 team principal and star of the hit Netflix series, Drive to Survive, Guenther Steiner. Together they have written two books so far – Surviving to Drive which topped the Sunday Times bestseller list and has been translated into thirteen languages, and Unfiltered, another international and Sunday Times bestseller – and they are about to complete a thirteen-month world theatre tour that has seen them play in front of well over 100,000 people in ten countries.
James is currently working on a third book with Guenther, as well as two other books and a new live show. He lives in Yorkshire with his wife and two children.
He can be found at @jameshoggwriter on Instagram.
