May James is a true legend of British television. A successful journalist and presenter is widely known for his love of cars. The co-author of the famous Top Gear project is known by the nickname "Captain Snail", which received for its extremely cautious driving style.
early years
May James was born January 16, 1963 in the British town of Bristol. In addition to the boy, parents raised three more children. Family members come from the family of Armenian emigrants, who at one time moved to England from Iran.
In his youth, James May regularly traveled with his parents to various cities. Initially, the family settled in the Welsh village of Caerleon near the city of Newport. Here the boy went to elementary school. James May spent most of his youth in Rotherham, which is located in South Yorkshire. It is noteworthy that it was in this town that Jeremy Clarkson, the future partner of our hero on the television show Top Gear, began his career as a journalist.
In his youth, May was a choir at the Winston School, where, along with singing, he studied piano and flute. Later, the young man entered the University of Lancaster. As a student, James studied at the Faculty of Music.
Career start
The path to success and recognition began for James May with the work of a journalist. After graduating from the university in the early 80s, our hero was approved as an assistant to the chief editor of the popular magazine The Engineer. The young man proved himself as a talented author and soon became an employee of the more successful Autocar.
Soon May was fired with a scandal. The fact is that ambitious James pretty quickly got bored of writing the same type of reviews on cars. In the articles, the author began to encrypt hidden messages, highlighting the beginning of the lines in red letters. The editorial board did not notice secret phrases for a long time. The idea of a journalist was discovered by readers. Having compiled highlighted letters from each article, the audience identified a phrase that read as follows: "Try to write a review yourself to understand what kind of hemorrhoids it is." After the scandalous story was made public, Autocar no longer wanted to collaborate with James.
Outrageous journalist switched to writing a book. Soon the audience was presented a work entitled "May on cars." The creation was a collection of the best articles of the author.
Work on television
In 1998, James was invited to try himself as a leading television program Driven, which introduced the audience to the news in the automotive industry. At the same time, work was underway on the show "School of road rage", which was broadcast on the popular BBC channel.
A year later, the launch of Top Gear, a rather promising program, took place. James May again took the lead. However, the show was destined to linger on the screens for less than a year. The reason was low ratings. The creators of the project changed the format, making the program more open to the viewer and diluting the airs with a significant proportion of good humor. Our hero returned to Top Gear after the start of the second season. For his work on creating a television program in 2000, May was awarded the prestigious “Automotive Journalist of the Year” award.
In 2006, James, along with colleague and friend Robert Clarke, launched the Great Wine Adventure project. During the shooting of the program cycle, fans of high-class alcoholic beverages traveled around France. Later, the place of deployment was replaced by the famous wineries in California. In the final series of programs, May and Clark continued to study the tradition of making alcohol in Britain.
Then the show “Male Lab” started, which was broadcast on the BBC-2 channel, starting in 2010. May’s author’s project aimed to restore the interest of the stronger sex in manual labor, the need to develop technical skills.
Personal life
James May is not officially married. TV star prefers a free relationship. At the moment, our hero is dating a rather famous choreographer Sarah Freiter. According to journalists, a relationship began between the couple back in 2000. What is surprising is the fact that James and Sarah still remain together, but do not want to formalize a legal marriage. Initially, young people occasionally appeared in public. Later, the relationship grew into something more serious. Now the couple lives together in May’s personal mansion. The house is located in a remote area of Hammersmith in West London.
Thanks to the rapid development of a career, our hero made a good fortune. James May currently has approximately 10 million pounds in his accounts. Part of the money was spent specifically on the purchase of a luxury mansion. In addition to his personal estate, the artist bought a nearby building, where workers previously worked at the factory. Here May organized a kind of workshop, from where he often leads his own television shows. According to James and Sarah, they feel completely happy on their personal estate.