Jonathan Hancock

Jonathan Bruce Hancock was a presenter on BBC Radio Oxford, and an author of books on memory and mind power. He is currently involved with his website, memorypower.org.

He was born in north-east England, on 12 February 1972, but moved at an early age to North Yorkshire where he spent his early childhood, and then to Nunthorpe, a suburb of Middlesbrough (then in County Durham), where he spent his schoolboy years. As a teenager, he became involved in broadcasting through the local hospital radio station.

After school, he took a year in Australia before moving to Oxford to study English at Christ Church, Oxford University. As a student in Oxford, he became involved with the local BBC radio station, where he went to work after completing his studies. It was at Radio Oxford that he met his future wife, Lucy, who was working there at the time (but has since trained as a schoolteacher). On 14 February 1999, Jonathan and Lucy were married in the famous Christ Church Cathedral, a privilege afforded to members of the college.

Jonathan has worked for Radio Oxford for some years (although for some of that time it was operating as Thames Valley FM). He had a variety of different jobs with the radio station, before first starting his current job of presenting the Breakfast Programme in August 2000, taking over from Dan Chisholm. He remains presenter of the programme, which runs from 6am-9am Monday-Saturday, where together with a team of helpers, he presents a full programme including local, national and international news, weather, travel, music, competitions and much else.

August 2000 was also the month that the Hancocks' first child, Noah, was born; Noah enjoys frequent mentions on the Breakfast Programme, and has also himself appeared on the programme. Two years later their daughter Evie was born. The family currently (January 2004) live in the Headington area of Oxford.

Jonathan has a keen interest in memory and mind-games, and sets various cerebral phone-in competitions for listeners to the Breakfast Programme. He has written eight books on memory and mind power, with titles such as "How to be a Genius", and "Maximise your Memory"; some of his books have been translated into French, German and Spanish. His latest project is an online memory course, memorypower.org. He put his memory techniques to good use in his university studies, and at the World Memory Championships in London which he won in 1994 (also entering in 1993 and 1995).

Jonathan is also a keen runner; he has run the London Marathon, and was chosen to carry the Queen's Jubilee Baton through Abingdon in Oxfordshire in the run-up to the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and has also participated in many local charity runs.

Quotation

"Imagination has no rules. You have a whole new world at your disposal, a place where there are no laws of gravity, no policemen - nothing to limit or restrict... Imagination allows us to switch on the electro-magnet of our minds and change information so that it becomes magnetic."

External links

* [http://www.memorypower.org memorypower.org]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/radiooxford/jonathan_hancock.shtml Biography on BBC website]
* [http://www.worldmemorychampionship.com/ World Memory Championship]