Rantings

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

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

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

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 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 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

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,

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

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

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

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 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

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

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 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

Six of the best Two weeks ago we invited Ranters to submit a short piece – no more or less than six words – as a biography, reminiscence or rant. This week we publish the pick of the bunch. A fairly frequent submission, I’m currently out of the office, was

Writing to length: difficult for some Better give the competition another week. We asked for only six words. Some sent eight, others submitted four. Clever stuff, almost all of them. Not, however, what was asked for. Four words is (are) two short. A rant, reminiscence, biog or story. And it’s

How the Daily Express covered the funeral of northern sports editor Henry Rose # Me and my shadow By Geoffrey Seed The poisoned umbrella murder of Georgi Markov, émigré Bulgarian and BBC journalist, wasn’t the only Cold War assassination in autumn 1978. Another London-based dissident, a Croat writer called Bruno

Thanks for the memory Shan Davies fillets her grey cells and takes us to a night club where she meets guys who butcher stuff other than copy; David Baird remembers a young Digger in the outback of Australia; Revel Barker – prompted by Liz Hodgkinson’s reference last week to a

The golden age This was the golden age of investigative journalism, writes Bill Harcourt, reviewing Murray Sayle’s book, A Crooked Sixpence for the prestigious Australian magazine, Quadrant. It was also – if the book is to be taken seriously – the age of make-it-up journalism. (In fairness, everybody to whom

‘If they’d invented computers first, we’d be on hot metal by now and it would work better.’ – NGA FoC, c1980. Gentlemen, that reminds me.. This, in an ideal world, is how Gentlemen Ranters is supposed to work. Somebody – pick a name out of the air, say Liz Hodgkinson