Paul Foot was one of the most powerful and influential investigative reporters of his generation.
For nearly 50 years he was the scourge of corrupt politicians and dodgy businessmen, and the champion of the causes of working people, the under-represented and the underprivileged.
In this, the first biography of Paul Foot, the writer and journalist Margaret Renn traces Foot's personal, political and professional trajectory, placing his life and works within the historical narrative of postwar Britain and beyond. Drawing on extensive interviews with those who worked knew him and worked alongside him, along with an unparalleled knowledge of his prodigious output, the book brings the many different faces of Paul Foot together and shows him as one of the most vital, and brilliant, journalists and writers of his generation.
A prolific writer for Daily Mirror, Guardian, London Review of Books among many others, his investigations broke some of the major stories of postwar Britain, from the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands war, the Tory Government’s assault on the coal miners in the 1984/5 strike, and the Labour Government’s catastrophic use of the Private Finance Initiative. But, equally, he told small stories about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, those like Colin Wallace, drummed out of army intelligence in Northern Ireland, or policeman Ron Smith, whose daughter Helen died in suspicious circumstances in Saudi Arabia.
By:
Margaret Renn
Imprint: Verso Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 31mm
Weight: 562g
ISBN: 9781804291900
ISBN 10: 1804291900
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 16 July 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: Our Left Foot 1. Mangoes in the Bath 2. An Inky Little Boy 3. Paradise on Earth 4. No Mean City 5. The Leper 6. A Bee to the Honeypot 7. Tightnits 8. Who Killed Hanratty? 9. One Glorious Summer 10. Y, Oh Lord, Oh Why 11. Vote for Foot 12. Honey on the Elbow 13. The Ditto Man 14. Poetry and Revolution 15. Look in the Mirror 16. The Enemy Within 17. Pamphleteer 18. Baldric's Cunning Plan 19. Who Killed Carl Bridgewater? 20. A Rattling Good Yarn 21. To Divide Is Not to Take Away 22. The Hired Bravos 23. The Great Crook 24. Back to the Honeypot 25. Head and Heart 26. Skinning the Tiger 27. Perfidious Financial Idiocy 28. The White Radiance of Eternity Bibliography of Paul Foot Works Notes Index
Margaret Renn is a writer and journalist. She worked alongside Paul Foot on Socialist Worker and then at the Daily Mirror from the early ‘80s until 1993. She has since worked at the BBC and produced radio documentaries for Radio 4 and the World Service, including programs on Lockerbie and on corruption. From 2009 until 2015 she was a Visiting Fellow in Investigative Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Reviews for Paul Foot: A Life in Politics
A truly fitting tribute to Britain's foremost campaigning journalist - righter of wrongs, fighter for underdogs and tormentor of the powerful. -- Roy Greenslade, former editor, <i>Daily Mirror</i> Margaret Renn has written a compelling and highly readable account of my great friend Paul Foot's life as socialist campaigner, journalist and scion of a famous political family. -- Richard Ingrams, co-founder and editor of <i>Private Eye</i> and founding editor of <i>The Oldie</i> One of the great British investigative journalists of the 20th century ... The accounts of many of his press campaigns, including about the murders of Blair Peach, Helen Smith and Stephen Lawrence, still make for powerful reading. -- Martin Chilton * Independent * A tremendous force for good ... [Paul Foot: A Life in Politics] is kind, thorough and honest. -- Peter Hitchens * Daily Mail *
