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In February 2002 Max Hastings retired from his position as a 'Fleet Street' Editor. His is an enormously illustrious career which started in 1985, when he was offered the Editorship of a national institution-the Daily Telegraph-in a surprise move by its owners. This candid memoir tells the story of what happened to him, and to a great newspaper, over the next decade. It is all here: the rows with prime ministers, the coverage of great events, the daily routine. Max Hastings describes his complex relationship with his proprietor, Conrad Black. He offers an extraordinary perspective on the decline of John Major, the troubles of the Royal Family, the difficulties of dealing with lawyers and celebrities, statesmen and stars. It is above all the story of the excitement and exhilaration of almost 10 years at the helm of one of the greatest newspapers in the world.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Max Hastings
98 books1,673 followersSir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL, FRHistS is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. His parents were Macdonald Hastings, a journalist and war correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar.
Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.
Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.
After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. He has won many awards for his journalism, including Journalist of The Year and What the Papers Say Reporter of the Year for his work in the South Atlantic in 1982, and Editor of the Year in 1988.
He stood down as editor of the Evening Standard in 2001 and was knighted in 2002. His monumental work of military history, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 was published in 2005.
He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Sir Max Hastings honoured with the $100,000 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.
Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.
After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. He has won many awards for his journalism, including Journalist of The Year and What the Papers Say Reporter of the Year for his work in the South Atlantic in 1982, and Editor of the Year in 1988.
He stood down as editor of the Evening Standard in 2001 and was knighted in 2002. His monumental work of military history, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 was published in 2005.
He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Sir Max Hastings honoured with the $100,000 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 30, 2018
My generation will be the last to still associate Fleet Street with newspapers. Perhaps this explains my recent bout of hunger for books about the halcyon days of print journalism.
I liked this account far more than I expected, in spite of itself - Hastings isn’t as enlightened as he seems to think. (Veronica was heavily pregnant with her first child, but she assured me that she would only need to take a few days off to have the baby in April and so indeed it proved.’) His main fault as a writer is smugness and a pathological immunity to doubt. I don’t think many rival newspapers actually thought Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard would trounce any invasion force single-handed, as Hastings claims. When Hastings spiked a piece that clashed with his own editorial, the writer did not take it ‘sweetly’, he took it volcanically, and is still known to curse Hasting’s name in public today.
Luckily the book’s strengths compensate for its flaws. It is efficient, clear, and uses facts cleverly. When the time came for the Tories to equip the 1st armoured division for the Gulf War, ‘it proved necessary to strip Rhine Army of tanks and fighting vehicles, because so much of the armour displayed on Britain’s order of battle was non-operational for lack of spares.’ This reputation for putting an inconvenient fact over ideology incensed Bernard Ingham (Thatcher’s press secretary), who took Hastings to task for his ‘vicious disloyalty.’ If that isn’t at least one good reason to gulp this heady, informative brew down, I don’t know what is.
I liked this account far more than I expected, in spite of itself - Hastings isn’t as enlightened as he seems to think. (Veronica was heavily pregnant with her first child, but she assured me that she would only need to take a few days off to have the baby in April and so indeed it proved.’) His main fault as a writer is smugness and a pathological immunity to doubt. I don’t think many rival newspapers actually thought Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard would trounce any invasion force single-handed, as Hastings claims. When Hastings spiked a piece that clashed with his own editorial, the writer did not take it ‘sweetly’, he took it volcanically, and is still known to curse Hasting’s name in public today.
Luckily the book’s strengths compensate for its flaws. It is efficient, clear, and uses facts cleverly. When the time came for the Tories to equip the 1st armoured division for the Gulf War, ‘it proved necessary to strip Rhine Army of tanks and fighting vehicles, because so much of the armour displayed on Britain’s order of battle was non-operational for lack of spares.’ This reputation for putting an inconvenient fact over ideology incensed Bernard Ingham (Thatcher’s press secretary), who took Hastings to task for his ‘vicious disloyalty.’ If that isn’t at least one good reason to gulp this heady, informative brew down, I don’t know what is.
April 21, 2022
A fascinating picture of a Fleet Street newspaper just as things were changing. the old and the new. Daily Telegraph is not my favourite newspaper but Max is a decent man who at least tried and, to some extent, succeeded in liberalizing it. I particularly like his portraits of. among others, Conrad Black and John Major.
January 4, 2025
A credit to one nation Toryism
The Telegraph became a readable newspaper in Mr Hastings's hands, perhaps for the last time. I wonder what he makes of today's malicious, dishonest and spiteful crypto fascist comic?
The Telegraph became a readable newspaper in Mr Hastings's hands, perhaps for the last time. I wonder what he makes of today's malicious, dishonest and spiteful crypto fascist comic?
October 7, 2019
Surprisingly dull, especially now that he's revealed what he really thought of Boris.
November 7, 2019
An old book which I read after seeing Hastings' modern assessment of BoJo's capabilities (or lack thereof). Striking how his criticism is completely absent from this overly sanitised memoir.
October 21, 2023
Very very interesting book
August 14, 2025
An insight to issues of editing a national newspaper, of managing a relationship with a proprietor, of changing (successfully) a failing out of date business. Fascinating insight where mistakes are acknowledged laced with humour and anecdotes. The introduction to paperback edition of 2024 offers some re-assessment of some individuals with benefit of hindsight (John Major for instance) but main text is unchanged.
February 15, 2009
Interesting
Want to read
April 6, 2013I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews