Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, PC (b.1963) Adonis's Greek father, Nikos, emigrated from Cyprus as a teenager, becoming a waiter in London, where he met Adonis's English mother. His mother left the family when he was 3, and she has had no communication with him since. Shortly thereafter Adonis and his sister were placed in care, because their father was working long hours and was not able to cope with sole parental responsibilities. Adonis lived in a council children's home until the age of 11, thanks to the matron called Auntie Gladys, he was awarded a local education authority grant to attend Kingham Hill School, a boarding school in Oxfordshire and Gladys became a sort of surrogate mother. Adonis studied at Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first-class Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History in 1984. He pursued further studies at Oxford receiving a doctorate with a thesis entitled, The political role of the British peerage in the Third Reform Act system, c. 1885–1914 at Christ Church, before being elected a fellow in History and Politics at Nuffield College.

Adonis is a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author of 11 books, who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2009 to 2010, and as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission from 2015 to 2017. He is also Chairman of the European Movement, having previously served as Vice-Chairman from 2019 to 2021. He is currently a columnist for The New European.

From 1991 to 1996, he was an education and industry correspondent at the Financial Times, eventually becoming their public policy editor. In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist, leader writer and editor.