MY PAPER CHASE: A MEMOIR REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
MY PAPER CHASE
BY HAROLD EVANS

ABOUT THE BOOK:

In My Paper Chase, Harold Evans recounts the wild and wonderful tale of newspapering life. His story stretches from the 1930s to his service in WWII, through towns big and off the map. He discusses his passion for the crusading style of reportage he championed, his clashes with Rupert Murdoch, and his struggle to use journalism to better the lives of those less fortunate.

There's a star-studded cast and a tremendously vivid sense of what once was: the lead type, the smell of the presses, eccentrics throughout, and angry editors screaming over the intercoms. My Paper Chase tells the story of Evans's great loves: newspapers and Tina Brown, the bright, young journalist who became his wife.

In an age when newspapers everywhere are under threat, My Paper Chase is not just a glorious recounting of an amazing life, but a nostalgic journey in black and white.

Harold Evans, the author of The American Century and now They Made America, is a celebrated historian and journalist. He was the editor of the Sunday Times of London for fourteen years and then the Times of London before settling in 1984 in America, where he has been successively founding editor of CondéNast Traveler; president and publisher of Random House; editorial director and vice chairman of U.S. News & World Report, the Atlantic magazine, Fast Company, and the New York Daily News.

In 2002 Britain's journalists voted Evans the greatest all-time British newspaper editor. He was knighted in Queen Elizabeth's 2004 New Year honors list. He lives in New York with his wife, Tina Brown, and their two children.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sir Harold Matthew Evans (born 28 June 1928) is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism. Since 2001, Evans has served as editor-at-large of The Week Magazine and since 2005, he has been a contributor to The Guardian and BBC Radio 4.

Evans was born in Newton Heath, Manchester, where he attended Brookdale High School Newton Heath, school with the future Alfred, Lord Morris of Manchester, who nicknamed him "Poshie" because he was the only boy in the school whose father - a railway driver - owned an automobile.

His career began as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire at 16 years old. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he entered Durham University where he graduated with honours in politics and economics and subsequently earned a Master of Arts degree for a thesis on foreign policy. He became an assistant editor of the Manchester Evening News and won a Harkness Fellowship in 1956-57 for travel and study in the United States. He began to gain a reputation on his return from the U.S. when he was appointed editor of the regional daily The Northern Echo, where one of his campaigns resulted in a national programme for the detection of cervical cancer.

During his 14-year tenure as editor of the Sunday Times, Evans was responsible for its crusading style of investigative reporting which brought to public attention many stories and scandals which were officially denied or ignored.

One such report was about the plight of hundreds of British Thalidomide children who had never had any compensation for severe birth defects some had suffered. This turned into a campaign for the newspaper's Insight investigative team, and Evans himself took on the drug companies responsible for the manufacture of Thalidomide, pursuing them through the English courts and eventually gaining victory in the European Court of Human Rights. As a result, the victims' families won compensation after more than a decade. Moreover, the British Government was compelled to change the law inhibiting the reporting of civil cases.

Other influential investigative reports included the exposure of Kim Philby as a Soviet spy and the publication of the diaries of former Labour Minister Richard Crossman, thereby risking prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

When Rupert Murdoch acquired Times Newspapers Limited in 1981, Evans was appointed editor of The Times. However, he remained with the paper only a year, resigning over policy differences relating to editorial independence. Evans wrote an account in a book entitled Good Times, Bad Times (1984). On leaving The Times, Evans became director of Goldcrest Films and Television.

In 1984, Evans moved to the United States, where he taught at Duke University. He was subsequently appointed editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly Press and became editorial director of US News and World Report. In 1986 he was the founding editor of Conde Nast Traveler, dedicated to "truth in travel".

Evans was appointed president and publisher of Random House trade group from 1990 to 1997 and editorial director and vice chairman of US News and World Report, the New York Daily News, and The Atlantic Monthly from 1997 to January 2000, when he resigned to concentrate on writing.

Evans' best known work, The American Century, won critical acclaim when it was published in 1998. The sequel, They Made America (2004), described the lives of some of the country's most important inventors and innovators. Fortune identified it as one of the best books in the 75 years of that magazine's publication. It was adapted as a four-part television mini-series that same year and as a National Public Radio special in the USA in 2005.

Harold Evans became an American citizen in 1993, and lives in New York with his wife Tina Brown and their two children. He was knighted for services to journalism in 2004.

REVIEW/REACTION:

What a fascinating man. I feel almost like I know him as he is associated with so many well-known publications and causes. Always the newspaper man and a pioneer in his field, he has been rightfully knighted, awarded, and renowned for his talents. Harold Evans is known as England's greatest editor since the war, thus the subtitle and it is certainly true when you read all he has done. His has always championed the causes of those who are not so easily heard like when he made the companies take responsibility for the birth defects caused by Thalidomide. I remember those stories as a child. The book is written with the class it deserves for an elegant and yet hard-hitting reporter, editor and writer. His memoir tells of a world when newspapers were so much more than they are today and it is interesting to get a glimpse into that era as we shall never see it again with the way communications have changed. And yet, men like Evans, if there ever were any as good as him, were a special breed unto themselves.

I found the story to be a very interesting, often entertaining read and much of it was because he has quite a sense of humor. His story hopefully gets across the point of how important newspapers once were and still can be today when done well..which is not often, sad to say. His personal life is described of course and includes his meeting and marrying his wife, Tina, and about their two children. However, I think I came away feeling that his real baby was and will always be the news and the newspaper. Very good autobiography and I recommend it if you like a good one like this.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO VALERIE AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE
FIVE COPIES OF THIS FASCINATING
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.

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