Sir Harold Evans knows his way around a story, having served as the editor of The Sunday Times of London, The Times of London , and all manner of publications up and down the food chain. As the title of his new book, My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times, suggests, he describes an epoch past, an era in British journalism when type was poured hot, articles deemed unfit landed on an actual spike, and the men—and it was mostly men—who commanded all of it were literate buccaneers. If all that sounds a bit silly, a gaslight waltz of serious men in eyeshades that has nothing to do with how journalism evolved, then My Paper Chase will leave you hopelessly, relentlessly bored. But do not confuse the modern newsroom (a generally quiet place that could be part of an insurance company) with the newsrooms of old—palpable theaters of language and ideas. The book is a fight song that revels in the music of those times past.
In this readable, almost wistful memoir, Sir Harold Evans remains the rare self-made Englishman who changed British journalism.
Old-school newspapering comes alive in this scintillating memoir. Anglo-American journalist Evans (The American Century) reminisces about his rise up the ladder of English newspapers to its pinnacle as editor of the Sunday Times and his late-career hop across the ocean to run Condé Nast Traveler and the publisher Random House. The author depicts British journalism as a more rugged affair than the American version; editor Evans dodges British laws that permit prior restraint of news stories by the government, gets sued by the Irish Republican Army and battles a thuggish printers' union that he hates even more than he does his boss, Rupert Murdoch. America presents its own unique hardships, including protracted discussions with Marlon Brando over acquiring his memoirs, during which the blowsy thespian accuses Evans of being a CIA agent. Evans creates a lively, evocative portrait of 20th-century journalism: the mad deadline pressure of the copy-desk, stocked with Dickensian characters; the epic investigative pieces that make reporting a kind of spy craft; the obsessive pull of editorial crusades against official wrongdoing. Written with self-deprecating humor and quiet conviction, this is a fine valedictory for a heroic style of journalism one hopes still has a future. Photos. (Nov. 5)
Evocative and enjoyable...Evans has a young man's perennial ¬enthusiasm: he is 81 going on 18. Reading his autobiography, one quickly grasps how he became the most successful editor of his generation. He exudes a combination of boundless enthusiasm, relentless energy and an almost childlike delight in the sheer ¬wonderfulness of newspapers. How can they not survive? ...one feels the warmth of his sunny personality even as the lights seem to be going out in much of print journalism. He saw the best of it - o, lucky man!
The autobiography of Harold Evans, Britain's greatest post-war editor...is a series of dramatically crafted stories recalled from the highest newspaper perch of all...This is Evans at his storytelling best.
Times Literary Supplement
Journalists' memoirs tend to be as transitory as the great stories they so lovingly recall....Few of them impart much of value, except perhaps for a fleeting sense of nostalgia...Harold Evans must surely be counted an exception, because, for more than a decade, he ran the best newspaper in the world. The Sunday Times, in the 1970s, was good because it placed journalism at the heart of the paper, and allowed it free rein...The stories for which Evans and his papers were once celebrated have long faded. But there is nothing ephemeral about the journalistic standards which he embraced. His may have been the hot metal era, but its lessons remain as important for the bloggers of today as they were for the reporters of his time. Those of us who were there were proud to be part of it.
One of the great editors of our era chronicles his life in news reporting and book publishing. As editor of the London Sunday Times and The Times, and later as president and publisher of Random House, Evans (War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict from the Crimea to Iraq, 2003, etc.) not only told the stories that changed the social and political world, he often was part of them. He began life as the son of working-class parents in 1930s Manchester, England. Early on he became aware of two things: the seemingly magical way in which newspapers would deliver a torrent of information, and the demarcations of success that were "ordained by the hierarchies of class." Yet rise Evans did. The author is at his best recounting daily life in war-torn England and his early efforts to become a newspaper man. He lovingly describes the smells ("lead, antimony, and tin . . . hot metal marinated with printer's ink" in the typesetting room) and noise (a cacophony of manual typewriters and animated phone calls) of his chosen profession. More important, Evans presents a narrative of stories and their consequences: the failure of the British health system to provide women with simple screening for cervical cancer; the official ignorance of the pollution that was literally choking the life out of Northern England; the willful failure to recognize and act on the struggles of children born without limbs after their mothers took Thalidomide. In these and many other cases, Evans exposed the "vast official carelessness" that permeated British political life. Of his life in America, which began in the '80s, Evans says relatively little, outside of a few anecdotes of signing book contracts withsuch luminaries as Marlon Brando, Richard Nixon and a then-unknown politician, Barack Obama. A second volume, covering these years, would be most welcome. Despite the title, Evans's memoir is more than relevant in the age of computer news; good reporting still demands what Evans exemplifies here-honesty, courage and dogged determination. Agent: Ed Victor/Ed Victor Ltd.
PRAISE FOR MY PAPER CHASE : My Paper Chase is a fight song that revels in the music of times past...It celebrates bygone glories and dwells on the truths of good journalism that still obtain."—David Carr , New York Times Book Review My Paper Chase a loving homage to the joys of old-fashioned British newspapering but it has allowed Mr. Evans to tell at proper length stories that should now be taught as classics in journalism schools worldwide."—Simon Winchester , New York Times My Paper Chase is the Gospel of Evans, and the gospel makes juicy copy."—Justin Moyer , Christian Science Monitor Publishers Weekly Leonard Downie Jr. , The Washington Post Financial Times
"Amid pervasive gloom surrounding the future of newspapers, Harold Evans has produced a memoir to lift the spirits."
"Engaging...in this readable, almost wistful memoir, Sir Harold Evans remains the rare self-made Englishman who changed British journalism."
Leonard Downie Jr. - The Washington Post
"A refreshing memoir...Evans jettisons hand-wringing over the 'vanished' times of its melencholy subtitle for one man's unquenchable enthusiasm for his life's work...My Paper Chase is the Gospel of Evans, and the gospel makes juicy copy."
Justin Moyer - Christian Science Monitor
"Not only is My Paper Chase a loving homage to the joys of old-fashioned British newspapering but it has allowed Mr. Evans to tell at proper length stories that should now be taught as classics in journalism schools worldwide."
Simon Winchester - New York Times
PRAISE FOR MY PAPER CHASE :
"My Paper Chase is a fight song that revels in the music of times past...It celebrates bygone glories and dwells on the truths of good journalism that still obtain."
David Carr - New York Times Book Review
"Like many others I was lucky to have worked with him. His book is illuminating and entertaining on his personal history and it gives a valuable record of what used to be known as English provincial life; more vital then, perhaps than now. But the important reason to read it is that it tells you how good newspapers were once made and why they still matter."
"SIR Harold "Harry" Evans remains one of the great figures of modern journalism. For this reason, and because the kind of campaigning, reporting-based work he stood for is threatened as never before, his autobiography, written as he turned 80, is both gripping and timely."
""Inspiring is an overused word. My Paper Chase truly is. Anyone who feels cynical about public life in general, and journalists in particular, should drink down this wonderful book in a single gulp. Harry Evans was the great crusader of the twentieth century British press. His memoir, which is also jaw-dropping social history, is the best education possible in what true journalism's all about."
[My Paper Chase ] is a work of extravagant exuberance. It is tough, optimistic, full of verve and friendship, written with clarity and energy, and goes like a train..."
Melvyn Bragg - The Telegraph
"Evocative and enjoyable...Evans has a young man's perennial enthusiasm: he is 81 going on 18. Reading his autobiography, one quickly grasps how he became the most successful editor of his generation. He exudes a combination of boundless enthusiasm, relentless energy and an almost childlike delight in the sheer wonderfulness of newspapers. How can they not survive? ...one feels the warmth of his sunny personality even as the lights seem to be going out in much of print journalism. He saw the best of it - o, lucky man!"
Robert Harris - The Times
A refreshing memoir...Evans jettisons hand-wringing over the 'vanished' times of its melencholy subtitle for one man's unquenchable enthusiasm for his life's work...My Paper Chase is the Gospel of Evans, and the gospel makes juicy copy.Christian Science Monitor
Like many others I was lucky to have worked with him. His book is illuminating and entertaining on his personal history and it gives a valuable record of what used to be known as English provincial life; more vital then, perhaps than now. But the important reason to read it is that it tells you how good newspapers were once made and why they still matter.The Guardian
Inspiring is an overused word. My Paper Chase truly is. Anyone who feels cynical about public life in general, and journalists in particular, should drink down this wonderful book in a single gulp. Harry Evans was the great crusader of the twentieth century British press. His memoir, which is also jaw-dropping social history, is the best education possible in what true journalism's all about.BBC
[My Paper Chase ] is a work of extravagant exuberance. It is tough, optimistic, full of verve and friendship, written with clarity and energy, and goes like a train...The Telegraph
Evocative and enjoyable...Evans has a young man's perennial enthusiasm: he is 81 going on 18. Reading his autobiography, one quickly grasps how he became the most successful editor of his generation. He exudes a combination of boundless enthusiasm, relentless energy and an almost childlike delight in the sheer wonderfulness of newspapers. How can they not survive? ...one feels the warmth of his sunny personality even as the lights seem to be going out in much of print journalism. He saw the best of it - o, lucky man!The Times
