My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times [Hardcover]

Harold Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2009

In My Paper Chase, Harold Evans recounts the wild and wonderful tale of newspapering life. His story stretches from the 1930s to his service in WWII, through towns big and off the map. He discusses his passion for the crusading style of reportage he championed, his clashes with Rupert Murdoch, and his struggle to use journalism to better the lives of those less fortunate. There's a star-studded cast and a tremendously vivid sense of what once was: the lead type, the smell of the presses, eccentrics throughout, and angry editors screaming over the intercoms. My Paper Chase tells the story of Evans's great loves: newspapers and Tina Brown, the bright, young journalist who became his wife.

In an age when newspapers everywhere are under threat, My Paper Chase is not just a glorious recounting of an amazing life, but a nostalgic journey in black and white.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. 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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

GREAT 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." (New York Times Book Review David Carr )

"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."

(New York Times Simon Winchester )

"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." (Kirkus Reviews )

"Old school newspapering comes alive in this scintillating memoir. Evans creates a lively, evocative portrait of 20th-century journalism...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." (Publishers Weekly )

"A refreshing memoir...[Evan's] jettisons hand-wringing over the 'vanished times' of its melancholy 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 Justin Moyer )

"Engaging...In this readable, almost wistful memoir, Sir Harold Evans remains the rare self-made Englishman who changed British journalism." (The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. )

"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 Robert Harris )

[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 Melvyn Bragg )

""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 Andrew Marr )

"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." (The Economist )

"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 Ian Jack )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (November 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780316031424
• ISBN-13: 978-0316031424
• ASIN: 0316031429
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harold Evans is the author of two critically acclaimed landmark histories of America: the New York Times bestseller "The American Century" and "They Made America: Two Centuries of Innovators," selected by Fortune magazine on its own 75th anniversary as one of the best books of the previous 75 years. WGBH television made four documentaries based on Evans's work.
Evans first came to America in 1956 as a Harkness Fellow at the University of Chicago and Stanford University; he traveled through 40 states and reported for The Manchester Guardian his first-hand experiences of the civil rights battles in the Deep South. On his return, he became assistant editor of the sister paper, the Manchester Evening News, then editor of the leading provincial daily, The Northern Echo, where he succeeded in getting a resistant government to establish a life-saving program for the detection of cervical cancer, and won a royal pardon for a man wrongly executed for murder.
Appointed editor of the influential London Sunday Times in 1967 and then of The Times in 1981, Evans was voted by British journalists the greatest all-time editor and also awarded the European gold award for the investigations and campaigns he led: his Insight team exposed the spy Kim Philby, tracked the cause of the crash of a DC-10 airliner near Paris (then the world's most deadly crash), and won justice for the children affected by thalidomide.
Settling in America in 1982, after a famous battle with Rupert Murdoch, he was editorial director of US News & World Report, founding editor of Condé Nast Traveler, and president of Random House from 1990 to 1997. He remains a contributing editor of US News, is editor at large at The Week magazine, and is a frequent broadcaster on American affairs for the BBC.
In 2004 he was knighted for his service to journalism. He is now an American citizen who lives in New York with his wife, Tina Brown, and their son and daughter.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps those who cherish newspaper journalism don't have as much to fear as they may think November 16, 2009

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

It's probably unfair to say that Harold Evans has led a charmed life, but there's ample support for that conclusion in this spirited memoir of his diverse career in newspapers and publishing. The story of his rise from a working class background in Manchester, England to the heights of British journalism is a briskly and skillfully told tale of hard work, a healthy dose of luck and an unflagging commitment to the highest standards of the profession he has pursued with admirable intensity for more than half a century.

From his days as a 16-year-old working on the Ashton-under-Lyne Reporter, Evans seemed to have newspapers in his blood. Overcoming his share of Britain's class prejudice as he scrambled up journalism's equivalent of Disraeli's "greasy pole," he displayed a healthy appetite for the grunt work that brought him to the attention of superiors who offered him positions of increasing responsibility along the way until he became editor, in 1961, of the stodgy Darlington Northern Echo, a regional paper in England's northeast. In that role, he launched a series of investigative campaigns that served as the model for the more far-reaching and dramatic ones he would pursue when he moved to London.

Evans astutely grasped early in his career that "transmitting information is easier than creating understanding," and throughout, he devoted himself to stimulating readers and provoking them to action. Although it's apparent he possessed rich stores of self-confidence to sustain him in the rough and tumble world of British journalism, there's a nice air of self-deprecation in observations like this one, attributed to one of his colleagues: "The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability."

The pace of the memoir slows somewhat in its second half, the bulk of which recounts the years that Evans served as editor of the London Sunday Times. In contrast to the crisp and frequently humorous stories of his upward climb in the newspaper business, in these chapters he tends to dwell at length, although with understandable pride, on the investigative journalism he relished. One chapter details the obstacles posed by Britain's Official Secrets Act to the effort to uncover the truth about the Kim Philby spy case. Another chronicles the paper's lengthy campaign to help secure just compensation for the young victims of the drug Thalidomide, exposing a sorry tale of corporate greed and the intransigence of the British civil justice system in the process. And in one of the book's lengthiest accounts, Evans relates the mystery surrounding the death of the Times Middle East correspondent David Holden, the victim of a still unsolved murder plot in Cairo. While Evans narrates these stories with passion and verve, some of the controversies lack sufficient intrinsic interest, and most of the principal actors are so little known, that American readers, at least, may find their interest flagging.

Although it's given fairly cursory treatment relative to the rest of his memoir, the most recent quarter century or so of Evans's life, including forays into the worlds of magazine (Condé Nast Traveler and U.S. News & World Report) and book (Atlantic Monthly Press and Random House) publishing, has been among the most stimulating. He's frank in describing how his affair with glamorous journalist and editor Tina Brown (so famous, he notes wryly, that some have referred to him as "Mr. Harold Brown") brought an end, amicable as he describes it, to his first marriage. His take on Rupert Murdoch, who purchased the Times as it emerged from a year-long strike in 1981 and forced Evans from his position as editor of the paper after barely a year in that position, is harsh, but in some respects oddly admiring. These portraits, and numerous others like them, are offered up in a witty, verbally dexterous style.

MY PAPER CHASE closes by reminding us that not a week goes by when there's not some dispiriting story of the real or threatened collapse of a venerable newspaper in this country. Given the dismal state of the industry, one might expect the memoir of a man who had spent most of his life toiling as a print journalist to end on an elegiac note. Instead, reflecting the adaptability that sustained his career, Evans is optimistic about the ability of the traditional newspaper to transform itself into something just as important and useful in the new world of online media. "The question is not whether Internet journalism will be dominant," he writes, "but whether it will maintain the quality of the best print journalism. In the end it is not the delivery system that counts. It is what it delivers."

If the current generation of journalists is determined to carry on with integrity and grit equal to Harold Evans's, perhaps those who cherish newspaper journalism don't have as much to fear as they may think.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read November 9, 2009

By Derek J. Humphry

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's a heck of a good read, containing a lot of modern historical references which throw ones mind back over the last 60 years. Its history of 20th century journalism and printing may be an obituary, but I agree with the author that eventually a combination of printing and internet may be developed. Hope so. D H

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and riveting account of the heydey of British journalism December 23, 2009

By M. Lapus VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Harold Evans' My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times appears a bit intimidating at first, if only because of the breadth, depth, and heft of it. But Harold Evans' writing flows, I found myself thoroughly engrossed. Born in 1928 from working class parents, Evans became a reporter at sixteen. His natural ability, drive, tenacity, and nose for a good story led him not just to excel in his field but to take on unrecognized and unpopular causes and to sway public opinion. One of the book's greatest strengths is the extent to which Evans gives us the background and context for each of the events or stories that he shares.

At the start, Evans delves into his own background. His father had little formal education but was a genius at numbers. For instance, if you named a date whether it was 25 years ago or just a few months, his father could unerringly identify which day of the week it was. He worked his way up at the railway, beginning as an engine cleaner to the position of driver. His ability to calculate how much a person's wages would be, taking into account the different wage scales, overtime, deductions, and irregular hours, was recognized in his company's accounting staff and won him the gratitude and affection of his colleagues at the railway. Evans points out that in England at that time, his father's mathematical abilities, even coupled with hard work, would not have afforded him better opportunities because of "the Geddes axe." Sir Eric Geddes, a.k.a. Lord Inchcape, a Minister of the Crown and the former manager of the North Eastern Railway Company, had a strong contempt for the abilities of the working class. In his committee's examination of the expenditure of public funds, he advised against giving secondary school education to poor children, "children whose mental capabilities do not justify it" - essentially consigning an entire generation to very limited prospects.

Evans' generation were given the opportunity to advance through a limited number of scholarships granted to ex-servicemen by the Ministry of Education, through the Butler Education Act in Great Britain. The Butler Act was a more restrictive version of the G.I. Bill but it paid for Evans' university education.

Evans shares what it was like to work in the early newsrooms, where typewriters, typesetters, scissors, spikes, and paste were critical tools of the trade. In the chapter Stop Press, Evans shares what it was like as a young "copy taster" managing the coverage of the unfolding of the Harrow-Wealdstone disaster - a train crash that quickly became a collision of three trains with 75 dead and 110 feared dead for Manchester Evening News. He managed, edited, revised, and published eight editions in six hours, without the help of computers.

Evans' projects range from battling air pollution to helping improve overseas newspapers, to beautifying Manchester to exposing the cause of the deadliest DC-10 air crash and uncovering one of the largest health scandals in the century.

I wish that I'd gotten this review out earlier to help people who might be looking for a good book whether for themselves or their loved ones. I found it fascinating - it's a book that I'll enjoy rereading at leisure.

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (November 5, 2009), 592 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.