This Week There was a time (predominantly the 60s and 70s) when it would have been unusual to have entered any newspaper pub (certainly in the north of England) without being regaled by stories of the most recent escapades of reporter Gilbert Johnson. He died last week, aged 81, after

We are like Jews in our love of telling long, lugubrious, and insulting stories about ourselves, and our fierce resentment of anyone else doing so. – Nicholas Tomalin in the Sunday Times   This Week We start with the republication of a piece that appears here in response to popular

This Week We start with the republication of a piece that appears here in response to popular demand. True, the folk who have asked for it remember it the first time round, more than 40 years ago. For some it was inspirational, for some motivational; some it encouraged to seek

This Week We have a movie clip this week. It’ll come as a boon to all those Ranters readers who are still experiencing difficulty in getting to grips with the printed word. This one’s actually a trailer for a movie that’s currently doing the rounds of film festivals in Europe

This Week Another week, another book. Another Keith Waterhouse classic, in fact, resurrected for your edification and delight. It’s the third of Waterhouse’s own favourites, following Waterhouse on Newspaper Style and The Theory and practice of Lunch. This one is The Theory And Practice of Travel, and it has little,

This Week Another week, another book. Another Keith Waterhouse classic, in fact, resurrected for your edification and delight. It’s the third of Waterhouse’s own favorites, following Waterhouse on Newspaper Style and The Theory and Practice of Lunch. This one is The Theory And Practice of Travel, and it has little,

This Week If it goes on like this, we will have to find a fount of type called Hushed Tones and put a reporter on the door to collect names of mourners. This week, Plain John Smith remembers Arthur Brown, who died earlier this month. Then Mark Day (we start

This Week It’s not too hot for the old folks back home, is it? One asks because the Grim Reaper has got another triple up, this week. Mike Kiddey remembers Eric Purnell of the Daily Telegraph (and elsewhere); Paddy Byrnerecalls running up against Terry Newell (Daily Mirror and other places);

This Week What you’re all bursting to know is how many times the royal wedding was mentioned in last week’s papers. You don’t give a toss? That can’t be right, otherwise those worthy charity workers at the Media Standards Trust, who are devoted to protecting the readers from declining levels

This Week What you’re all bursting to know is how many times the royal wedding was mentioned in last week’s papers. You don’t give a toss? That can’t be right, otherwise, those worthy charity workers at the Media Standards Trust, who are devoted to protecting the readers from declining levels

This Week We were looking at the factors that tempted old hacks into this (once) Great Game of ours. Harry Procter, who was a great name in the great game a generation or so ago, had been lured as a teenager by a book called The Street of Adventure and

This Week It was Wayzgoose yesterday and the entire staff took a charabanc down to the coast at Helvetica, went on the toot, and they haven’t been heard from since. Leaving the editor to mooch about, catch up with his reading and discover (in something he found in the litter

This Week It may be that it was the mention of a possible million-pound prize in our competition – announced last week – that drew in the responses. But that would be an unworthy thought… what people are going for is the first prize: a copy of The Ideal Occupation,

This Week So… how did you get into journalism? It’s a question you’ve surely been asked before, although it possibly started with ‘how on earth did you ever…’ What are (or were) we doing here (or there)? That’s a question we probably asked ourselves, possibly often. Why journalism? Were all

This Week Amazing thing, memory. Especially when it works right. There I was, making my daily dip into the Media Guardian blog to see what titbits Professor Roy had to offer and I was immediately transported back, half a century, to the Albion Street (Leeds) offices of the Yorkshire Post

This Week It was (although you might have slept through it) Oscar Week. And the nominations in the Best Excuse For Not Interviewing Colonel Gaddafi category are: Alan Dean, in I Missed Him In Three Countries and Didn’t Get Any Of His Loot… David Baird, for Close, But No Cigar…

This Week It was (although you might have slept through it) Oscar Week. And the nominations in the Best Excuse For Not Interviewing Colonel Gaddafi category are: Alan Dean, in I Missed Him In Three Countries and Didn’t Get Any Of His Loot… David Baird, for Close, But No Cigar…

This Week You couldn’t make it up… Neil Marr (ex Mirror, Mail, People), now living on the French Riviera, arranges to meet former colleague Ian Markham Smith and his missus in a local bar this week. The only problem is they haven’t met for maybe 40 years, so how will

This Week Seems a bit late, now, but a happy new year to all our readers and, especially, to our contributors. Thanks to everybody who picked up the challenge of our Christmas competition and submitted a book synopsis, or a chapter (even, in one case, a complete book) or the

This Week Prolific journalist that he is – and there have been very few days when at least one of his stories didn’t appear in some publication, somewhere – Arnie Wilson’s by-line is probably more familiar to readers of the Financial Times (where he has written most Saturdays in winter

This Week We’re indebted to Dermot – ‘there’s an awful lot of copy in Brazil’ – Purgavie for drawing our attention to a piece by Conrad Black who has reviewed three books for a website of which he’s described as ‘publisher emeritus’. It contains Black’s unique insight into the world