Who's Who (UK)
[7] Entries include notable figures from government, politics, academia, business, sport and the arts.According to Sladen, the old Who's Who was solely a "handbook of the titled and official classes only", which he sought to modernize by including celebrities from all circles through the use of autobiographical forms.[15][16] While Sladen's contract was not renewed, the revised Who's Who experienced financial success: its sales rose from 10,000 to 12,000 copies between 1901 and 1910, in spite of a twofold increase in the book price for that period.[40] In 1990, it was reported that after the departure of Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen, the people who compiled Who's Who remained anonymous to conceal the fact that they were female.[41] In 2004, it was reported that the editorial staff and the selection panel endeavour to operate in anonymity so as to shield themselves from unwanted pressures.[42] The subjects of Who's Who entries include peers, MPs, judges, senior civil servants, writers, lawyers, scientists, academics, actors, athletes, artists and hereditary aristocrats.50 percent of new entrants (such as those holding a professorial chair at Oxbridge, baronets, peers, MPs, judges etc.)are included automatically by virtue of their office or title; the other 50 percent are selected at the discretion of a board of advisors.[43][44][45] Inclusion has come to carry a considerable level of prestige: Paul Levy stated in The Wall Street Journal in 1996 that having an entry in Who's Who "really puts the stamp of eminence on a modern British life".[56] The Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects wrote that the choice of subjects included in Who's Who 1936 was generally appropriate.[57] Writing in The Spectator about a radio documentary on the book they prepared for BBC Radio 4 in 2004, Crick and Rosenbaum criticised, or reported that others had criticised, the publication for its lack of inclusion of well known celebrities, sports personalities, solicitors, and the quasi-totality of Britain's wealthiest people.[58] In 2021, it was reported that Michael Grade,[59] who was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC from 2004[60] to 2006,[61] had criticised Who's Who for failing to include entries for Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne.[59] Richard Fitzwilliams, former editor of The International Who's Who quoted in The Independent in 2015 indicated that Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn were included in Who's Who against their wishes, and that W. S. Gilbert was "threatened with being given a concocted version of his entry unless he provided one".So I put him down in the book as "Writer of Verses and the libretti to Sir Arthur Sullivan's comic operas.""[64] In a footnote to the preceding passage from Sladen's autobiography, the historian Philip Waller said that "Sladen did not always allow accuracy to get in the way of a good story", and that the actual facts consist of the inclusion of the line "Writer of Verses and the libretti to Sir Arthur Sullivan's comic operas" in Gilbert's biography in Who's Who 1897 and 1898, and the removal of that line from Gilbert's biography in Who's Who 1899, to which no other changes were made.[76] The Law Magazine and Review wrote that "The accuracy of the information given shows the great care with which this work has been compiled".[79] The Canada Lancet wrote that "The book contains a vast amount of reliable information regarding persons of note throughout the British Empire".[81] Engineering wrote that Who's Who, 1906 gave "accurate information regarding the career of men whose names are frequently before the public in an official or other capacity".accurate biographies of the leading personages in the Western political and literary world, Britons of course predominating.[87] Medical Record wrote that "The data about Americans mentioned in the work appear to be in the main correct, though we notice that the name of the late Albert Bierstadt, the artist, is retained in the book as though he were still living.[94] The Empire Review and Magazine wrote "the great pains taken to ensure accuracy gives to the volume additional value"."[99] Page's Weekly wrote that "Who's Who has a notable reputation to maintain and it is not surprising to find, therefore, that exceptional care is taken to render it a reference work of unimpeachable accuracy.[110] The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal also praised the accuracy of that edition, but wrote that the book included an entry for a deceased person.[112] The accuracy of Who's Who 1938 was praised by the Journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene[113] and by the New Statesman and Nation.[134] The accuracy of the entry for Reginald William Revans in Who's Who 1987 was praised by Yury Boshyk and Robert Lexow Dilworth.[8] It has been reported that entries for Mohamed al-Fayed,[139][47] Anita Brookner,[47][41][140] Ken Dodd,[139][8] Susan Hampshire,[139][47][8] Nanette Newman,[139] and Nicholas Parsons[8] have displayed incorrect dates of birth.[47] Errors in the dates of birth of Mohamed al-Fayed, Ken Dodd and Susan Hampshire had previously been reported by Compton Miller, editor of Who's Really Who, in a book review of A & C Black's Who's Who 1998, in which Compton Miller praised the entries for Mohamed al-Fayed, Ken Dodd and Susan Hampshire in his own book.[8] Jeremy Paxman has calculated that only 8% of new entrants in 2008 made any reference to marital breakdown, which is far below the national average.[158] In a review of Who's Who 1903, the Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer wrote "From time to time it has been found necessary to remove some useful tables inserted in the front of the book, in order to make room for the biographies, and now the portentous increase of the latter has led to the complete removal of the tables, with the exception, of course, of those devoted to the Royal Family and to obituaries.[160] When the subject of a Who's Who entry dies, the biography is transferred to the next volume of Who Was Who, where it is usually printed as it appeared in its last Who's Who, with the date of death added.