Well Told was founded in 2017 by Giles Wilson, formerly founding editor of the BBC’s News Magazine, and Mark Kramer, known to many writers as the father of narrative journalism.
The motivation was simple – that while the US and many European countries have thriving movements of narrative journalists, the UK had very little. There had not even been a conference in the UK about narrative and longform journalism. So Giles and Mark resolved to put that right and held the first Well Told in 2017.
A second conference, held jointly with the Centre for Investigative Journalism at Goldsmith’s, University of London, took place in 2019 to great acclaim.
It became obvious to them that, although UK journalists had not perhaps had the opportunity to talk to each other as much about their art as those working in other countries, there was no shortage of appetite to do so.
With the partnership of the CIJ and support of sponsors, the intention is to bring a variety of events and activities to the UK with the aim of championing and supporting the best in narrative and longform journalism.