Review
"'I have great stories to tell, secrets to reveal, friends to salute, and bodies to bury. It should be, rather like my editing career, a lot of fun. Unless your name's Jeremy Clarkson or Ian Hislop, I guess.' Piers Morgan"
Peter Oborne, Spectator
"Piers Morgan’s ghastly diaries will be the epitaph of this government...a book of historic importance"
Greg Dyke, The Guardian
"gives us hundreds of wonderful tales, some funny, some profound, some just fascinating"
Andrew Marr, Start the Week
The Observer
scurrilously entertaining
The Observer
...this is a book that holds up a mirror to the spinning and posturing of our celebrity age...
Andrew Marr, Start the Week BBC R4
Greg Dyke, Guardian
(he) gives us hundreds of wonderful tales, some funny, some profound, some just fascinating
Product Description
At the record-breaking age of 28 Piers Morgan was made editor of the News of the World, the UK's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper. The decade that followed was one of the most tumultuous in modern times, a period in which we witnessed the self-implosion of the Tories, the rise of New Labour, the Royal Family brought to its knees by scandal and tragedy, horrific news events like Dunblane, september 11, and the war in Iraq - alongside a seemingly endless supply of fantastically entertaining sport and celebrity gossip. Throughout the period (he later moved to the Mirror, Infamously deciding to take it upmarket and stand alone in making the paper anti-war) he kept detailed diaries of what happened, as it happened - recording encounters and escapades with the key figures involved, from Murdoch to Blair, Diana to the Beckhams. Like Alan Clark and Paul Burrell before him, The Insider will give the wider reading public an unprecedented insight into the workings not only of newspapers, but the inside track on the corridors of power in Britain. Entertaining, engaging and compulsive, The Insider is set to become the most talked-about book of the 2005, blowing apart every notion we have about politics, media and celebrity in twenty-first century Britain.
From the Publisher
The most talked-about book of the year - now in paperback
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From the Author
Dear Reader,
If you don't think this is the funniest book of the year (and perhaps Millennium come to think of it) then I suggest you see a doctor as a matter of urgency.
Your humble and obedient servant,
Piers
From the Back Cover
The staff are still deeply uneasy about my appointment. I heard one of the older sub-editors whisper 'f**k me, he's younger than my grandson' as I was given a proper tour of the newsroom. These are serious professionals, many with more than 25 years experience on the biggest selling newspaper in the world. They are not immediately impressed by this spotty little kid marching in from some pop column to tell them what to do. And I feel quite intimidated by the stares, the huddles, the murmurings. I'm a confident person by nature, but this is going to test that confidence more than anything in my life...
At the tender age of 28, PIERS MORGAN was made editor of a national newspaper. So began a career at the epicentre of Britain's media over one of the most tumultuous decades in modern times.
We witnessed the implosion of the Tories and the rise of New Labour; we were rocked by the death of Diana and saw the Royal Family brought to its knees by scandal and tragedy; gripped by horrific news like the massacre at Dunblane and the Paddington rail disaster, we also found ourselves enthralled by a stream of celebrity gossip. And then, on 11 September 2001 the world changed forever. Within a year Britain was at war with Iraq and at odds with itself.
These are the diaries of a true insider and the cast of characters is endless. Diana, William and Charles; Tony Blair, Cherie, Gordon Brown; Paul McCartney, George Michael and Elton John; Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson and Al Fayed; Fergie, Paul Burrell, James Hewitt, Earl Spencer; Jeremy Clarkson, Paula Yates, Paul Gascoigne; Jeffrey Archer, Alistair Campbell and Alan Clarke. To name but a few.
In a world of indiscreet dinners, private meetings, and gossipy lunches, Piers Morgan found himself in the thick of it and his diaries, written with all the excitement and pace of a thriller, make compulsive reading. Often laugh-out-loud funny and at times nothing less than shocking, to read THE INSIDER is to experience first-hand the secret deals, plotting and power-games that make Britain what it is today.
About the Author
Piers Morgan was born in 1965. He studied journalism at Harlow College, beginning his career in local south London newspapers before being spotted by Kelvin MacKenzie of The Sun and given his own showbiz column, Bizarre. Rupert Murdoch made him Editor of the News of the World in January 1994; he was headhunted two years later to edit The Mirror where he stayed until earlier this year.
