10 Things You Didn’t Know About A. C. Grayling

A. C. Grayling was born on the 3rd of April 1949
He is a British philosopher and author
A.C was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Malawi
In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London
He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford
Crayling attended several boarding schools, including Falcon College in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), from which he ran away after being regularly caned
His first exposure to philosophical writing was at the age of twelve, when he found an English translation of the Charmides, one of Plato’s dialogues, in a local library
At age fourteen, he read G. H. Lewes’s Biographical History of Philosophy (1846), which confirmed his ambition to study philosophy; he said it “superinduced order on the random reading that had preceded it, and settled my vocation”.
Grayling had two elder siblings, sister Jennifer and brother John
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to philosophy