The Book of the Week is “My Paper Chase, The Stories of Vanished Times” by Harold Evans, published in 2009. This is a recounting of Evans’ life and career in one volume.
Evans’ desire for obtaining a university degree was unusual for British journalists of his generation because it was not necessary. Fortunately, he was able to complete his degree in three years without having to study Latin.
Over the course of his decades-long rise through newspaper management, he covered wars, disasters, scandals, and also authorized the publishing of a number of controversial stories that defied British law. He believes that the job of a newspaper is to inform citizens of goings-on that affect them, even if the government does not want them to know.
Evans writes, “Violence is always sure of space on television and in the press. Political change, being more subtle and dull, is frequently neglected until it explodes into ‘inexplicable’ violence.”