David Aaronovitch grew up in London and read history at Manchester University. He started his career in journalism as a researcher on Weekend World at LWT, then joined the BBC and became editor of On the Record.

He subsequently moved into print journalism and presenting. He is a columnist and feature writer for The Guardian and The Observer and was named Columnist of the Year at the What the Papers Say awards in 2003. He also regularly contributes to other newspapers and magazines.

For Radio 4 he presents the series The Copysnatchers and The Roman Way. He is a frequent guest on numerous other radio and television programmes. His book, Paddling to Jerusalem, is an account of his voyage of discovery canoeing around England.

David lives in North London with his partner and three daughters.

He says of Copysnatchers: "I think of this programme as From Their Own Correspondent - an essential corrective to a wholly Anglo-centric perspective. It also answers questions such as 'Is our cooking that bad?' with a resounding 'Yes!'"