John Foley

John Foley is an actor, writer, puzzle setter (crosswords, etc.), and Audie^®-nominated audiobook producer. After years of stage work as an actor, he turned to writing and radio, adapting a score of plays by writers such as Alan Bennett, Ronald Harwood, John Osborne, J. B. Priestley and Victoria Wood for World Service Drama and Radio 4, and scripting and voicing more than 600 programmes for BBC English. He has produced 200+ audiobooks for Macmillan, Naxos, Random House, and other publishers, mainly of unabridged English, European and American classics. Other published work includes two reference books; a volume of musical anecdotes; storylining for Disney comics; graded readers for children, and three collections of short stories. for Macmillan Cancer, Mencap, and The Silver Line. His most recent book, In and Out of the Schnoodle Bag, a collection of 16 stories with all proceeds going to Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice and end of life care, was published in October 2022.  

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers, and of the Fishmongers. In addition to appointments as a Common Councillor, he is a Trustee of The Shaw Society (to promote the works of GBS) and a Trustee of Age UK City of London. 

In November 2022 to help promote and celebrate the City’s rich culture and history he helped found and became Executive Editor of a new magazine, The City Courant (after The Daily Courant, the UK’s first daily newspaper, first published in the City on 11 March 1702). A special edition of the Courant was published in August 2023 to celebrate the revival of Bartholomew Fair (1133-1855).