Jon

Jon

Lest we forget
Rantings

Issue 77

This week ·Editor’s letter – Revel Barker ·Before he rocked around the clock Bill Haley rolled around the ping-pong table. Alan Whittaker reveals some little known background about the great editor of The Thunderer. ·‘He has been called the Keith Richards of tabloid journalism, but that’s half-arsed. It should be

Dead reckoning
Rantings

Issue #74

This week Is the Grim Reaper persona non grata on a website for old hacks who are, it was noted here in passing this week, getting older by the day? Surely not, for his visits are nowadays virtually the only excuse we still have to get together. Whatever, he has

The untold stories
Rantings

Issue #73

Editor’s letter: the untold stories British Journalism Review – out this week Best man at a Hollywood wedding, by Jeffrey Blyth Court in the act, by Stan Solomons The elephant we missed, by Garth Gibbs Pleasant memories of Reveille, by Ian Bradshaw The office Mungo, by Jack Irvine The gent

Rantings

Issue #73

Editor’s letter: the untold stories British Journalism Review – out this week Best man at a Hollywood wedding, by Jeffrey Blyth Court in the act, by Stan Solomons The elephant we missed, by Garth Gibbs Pleasant memories of Reveille, by Ian Bradshaw The office Mungo, by Jack Irvine The gent

Rantings

Issue #71

Book early for Christmas And now, a toast to the ladies… Roy Greenslade reviews Ladies Of The Street by Liz Hodgkinson It’s called hack-lit, says Garth Gibbs in The Independent, and it’s the latest successful publishing phenomenon Paul Dacre was right about the Sunday Express, says Michael Watts But he

Rantings

Issue #70

Down Memory Lane (contd.) Two new reviews of Murray Sayle’s great novel about the ‘red-top’ or ‘tabloid’ days – long before the titlepiece was done in red, and even before the papers were necessarily tabloid in size. Roy Greenslade (Media Guardian) says every journalist should read A Crooked Sixpence. And

Rantings

Issue #69

Notes: are you serious? A visit to the newseum – Jeffrey and Myrna Blyth Let’s hear it for celebs – Vanessa Richmond AGM of Newcastle plc – Geordie Hinney The story behind the scoop– a review, Alasdair Buchan Outed: the aristo who buggered a book – Richard Kay, Daily Mail

When Irish eyes are smiling, on us
Rantings

Issue #67

One of the finest sports writers of his generation, Alan Hoby, has died at the age of 94. Hoby was an elegant impeccably dressed character, famously entertaining off duty but a masterful wordsmith during his long years at the Sunday Express, where he was brought in by the late Sir

Memo to subs
Rantings

Issue #64

Language, gentlemen, please Warning: there is some ripe language in this edition of Ranters; if you are likely to be offended, please click here and go the point below which there are no swear words of any kind. There’s probably nothing, anyway, that you wouldn’t hear any day in the

Rantings

Issue #62

Obiter dictum The local vicar, when I was a teenager, was a total tosser but he was kindness personified when my granny died. He told me not to be sad for her, because ‘she is absolutely ok, now – and you needn’t worry about her or feel sorry for her.’

The reporter Harry Pugh
Rantings

Issue #32

The reporter Harry Pugh As we put this week’s edition to bed we heard the sad news of the death of Harry Pugh, reporter, at his home in Leek (Staffs). Obit and tributes will appear next week. Funeral details will appear on this site when they are available. UPDATE (Sunday):

Back to the typeface
Rantings

Issue # 60

Back to the typeface Just before we resume toil from what Brother Callan and I always referred to as The Long Vac, permit me to mention that the Euro Lottery this week (that means tonight, Friday) stands at an estimated ₤92million. Look… it is academic to the members who are

Guardian editor met Piers Morgan
Rantings

Bodoni, Friday

Still in holiday mode but, unable to stop, we came across a quote via the editor’s blog of Press Gazette lifted from a story in The Independent, that was an extract of a piece in GQ magazine. On the off-chance that there are readers out there (difficult to believe, I know,

Rantings

Issue #56

Things to do on your holiday   1. Write a piece for Ranters. It goes, or should go, without saying that this website is only as good as its contributions. If you read it regularly, you know the sort of stuff we use; it can be a rant, but it

Choosing a career
Rantings

Issue #55

Coming shortly Next week (there’s nothing like looking ahead) will be August – the month when gentlemen don’t appear in Town. So if you’re slipping off to the country or Chiantishire or even to the costas you’ll need something to read, And we have another book coming out – the fourth

Something for that rainy day
Rantings

Issue #54

Old Harrovian ties Age hadn’t wearied them, even if the years and a number of other factors had contrived to condemn. What was remarkable, in truth, was how little we had all changed. A touch of avoirdupois here (remarkable how cotton shirts seem to shrink, with time), perhaps a hint

Rantings

Issue #53

Early to bed Publishing a day early this week – because some of us need to resort to trains and boats and planes to get to the Harrow by noon tomorrow (Friday). It promises to be a lively gathering, and the biggest massing of hacks on licensed premises since a

On-the-shelf
Rantings

Issue #48

On the shelf The number of people who have suggested a compilation of The Best Of Ranters in book form is immensely flattering and encouraging. But here’s a question: Who would buy it? Almost perversely, journalists don’t have a book-buying culture. Some of them pick up as much as they

Rantings

Issue #38

Ranters’ promotions TWO exclusive readers’ offers this week (we may not make a habit of doing this). Former Manchester freelance Peter Reece shares the secrets of his personal pension plan which appears – and we can say no more than this – to be a potential earner and an interesting

Rantings

Issue #37

Scoops We have scoops about scoops today: how we made them. At last it can be told. Geoffrey Seed recalls the scoop splash spy story for a monthly community newspaper (circulation 1,300) that dragged in the heavy mob from The Street for a Chapman Pincher follow-up. Stanley Blenkinsop, who was

Life on the streets
Rantings

Issue #35

Life on the streets This reporter happens to believe that the beginning of the end of journalism as we knew it was when newspapers stopped competing with television and started competing with TV Times. The power held by producers of Coronation Street and Eastenders was immense and the journalistic rivalry