The Insider [Hardcover]

Piers Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

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"

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 484 pages
• Publisher: Ebury Press (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0091905060
• ISBN-13: 978-0091905064
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reading, August 27, 2007

By 

M. E. Thomson (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade (Paperback)

This book wasn't what I expected it to be. I was slightly disappointed with it when I opened it and saw the diary style, small writing, I thought this is going to be really boring.
How wrong I was, I took it on vacation and started reading it and it was very good, I found myself reading it at every opportunity.
I am not a fan of Piers morgan but his Diary on life as a major Newspaper editor was excellent. It opened yours eyes on how Newspapers get their stories and headlines.
It was a book well done.
One little bit of advice though it is based mainly around British politics and celebrities

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade, September 16, 2005

By 

I. M. Jarrett "ijaway" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Insider (Hardcover)

Piers Morgan comes over as an arrogant young man with an ego bigger than Ben Nevis. But that's undoubtedly one of the qualities you need to survive in the UK's tabloid wars. A compelling book, with some amazing inside stories of Britain's royals and politicians. How much Morgan actually wrote down in his diaries and how much came out of his fertile mind remains something of a mystery, In his days as editor of the Daily Mirror he never shirked from running spoof stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside Piers Morgan's mind?, April 13, 2009

By 

Jess Keen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade (Paperback)

The Insider is an addictive read, providing compelling insight into newspaper editing and the role tabloids play in politics and public relations. Intriguing enough just to revisit ten years of scoops and scandals, it is most interesting to see how liberally supposed news stories get 'splashed' recklessly over tabloid covers without serious substantiation or attempt at impartiality. It also gives character to the hitherto invisible journalists behind these vitriolic, hectoring papers - often foul-mouthed, hard-drinking egomaniacs it seems - and exposing the hypocrites and sycophants in the world of celebrity. The question you have to ask yourself while reading this is whether Piers Morgan is to be trusted. The world he appears to inhabit is the same slightly dubious reality that the tabloids reflect, and Morgan is a shameless name-dropper who enjoys boasting of his relationships with Diana and Tony Blair. He seems fit to burst with smug satisfaction at doing over his rivals and is quick to point out how clever he is. He likes to think that he was, as editor of a major tabloid, one of the most powerful people in public life and politics, depicting the government as pandering to his whims. I think he overstates the case, and is perhaps a little naive, but this is no less enjoyable a read for that.