Stick It Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story of the Sun Newspaper

by Chris Horrie, Peter Chippindale

The 1980s was the best of times and the worst of times for the British tabloid press. Locked in a vicious war for readers it was a time when the phrase "anything goes" never seemed so apt.

Privacy was invaded, stories made up and toes well and truly trodden on as Fleet Street's finest embarked on a period which, arguably, saw some of the best and worst reporting in the history of British journalism. And the paper that emerged from the contest with its head and shoulders way above the rest was the Sun.

In Stick It Up Your Punter!, ex-national newspapermen Peter Chippindale and Chris Horrie take a behind the scenes look at the operations of the Sun and it's lewd, crude and brilliant editor Kelvin McKenzie. In the main, it's a tale of high farce as Chippindale and Horrie explain the truth behind stories including the rescue of a death-bound donkey from Spain and the infamous "Gotcha!" and "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster" headlines. This humour is tempered, however, by more serious stories including the libel actions of Elton John and Jeffrey Archer against the paper.

For anyone interested in the social history of Britain and the rise and fall of tabloid journalism this book is completely unsurpassed in it's depth and coverage. For those seeking light entertainment and Carry On style humour, there's plenty here to keep you amused. Stick It Up Your Punter is the finest book on British tabloid journalism ever written.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Journalism, History, Business

541 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the News of the World dead and Sun journalists being arrested on a daily basis, it's easy to let one's schadenfreude get out of control and start predicting the newspaper's imminent demise. Except that we've (more or less) been here before. I read this book in 1991. The author's claims that the Currant Bun was in a passive vegetative state and would soon have its life support switched off turned out to be, alas, on the optimistic side.

So he didn't get it completely right, but the book is still a page-turner. Your fun Sun fact for today: in case you didn't know, Page 3 is produced entirely by women. The team that does it has every inch of office space covered with nude male pictures, an installation generally known to staff as "the Willie Wall".

For people who weren't around at the time of the Falklands War, the title is a reference to one of their most famous headlines,

STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA

The book gives details, also on the notorious and much-parodied

GOTCHA

which appeared in connection with the sinking of the Belgrano.

[Bob Mcdermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book which tells the story of the Sun from its rebirth as a Murdoch newspaper and its early years with the editors Larry Lamb and Kelvin McKenzie. It reinforced my original conviction that The Sun (and its like) have been dragging the people of the country down into the gutter for years with great collateral cost and very little regard for the truth. McKenzie especially comes across as the kind of person that i wish would just get in the sea.

Also includes some side-learning about the key events of the period such as the Falklands, Hillsborough and of course the rise, fall and rise of Frank Bough!

For the avoidance of doubt: don't buy the sun. Buy this book instead (or Jim Felton's who has just released a similar one but more up to date)

[Tomas Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strašne vtipná kniha o mimoriadne odporných novinách. Žiadne veľké analýzy, ale stovky neuveriteľných historiek.

„Dvere do mojej kancelárie sú vždy otvorené. Zatvorené sú len preto, že mám klimatizáciu“. (šéfredaktor Lamb)

Najvtipnejšie kúsky z knihy: https://dennikn.sk/1859673/tldr-zabav...

[North Landesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history of the Sun from 1969-1998. This book was a true delight to read. It gave me a picture of what working for a place like that must have been. The Murdoch switch from Tory to Labor was especially fascinating, as were the various libel suits and the Elton John case. Anyone intersted in journalism shoud read this book.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. A really good insight into tabloid journalism and its roots. As you would expect from this field, it is witty, well paced and well written.

[Adam Mollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

About as debased as you’re imagining

[Filip Olšovský · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect. If you have this many stories you don't need a stronger narrative. Don't remember a book with so many sentences highlighted and read to people around.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOW INCLUDING REVIEWS OF THE 1999 and 2013 EDITIONS!!

A worthy companion to Paper of Wreckage: The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media, which chronicles several decades in another part of Rupert Murdoch's domain, the New York Post. Sadly, I didn't know the 1991 edition of "Stick It Up Your Punter" was updated in 1999, taking in the change of regime for both the Sun and the UK, and again in 2013 to include News International's near implosion around the time of the phone-hacking scandal and Leveson Committee hearings. I'll have to get around to those eventually.

Being published when it was, the first edition is for the most part, inevitably, the story of Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, a magnetic character in the sense of being both attractive and repulsive depending on where you stood in relation to him. He was a born tabloid editor -- funny, smart, endlessly energetic and creative as he remade the bottom of the UK newspaper market, reckless, crude, racist and wildly homophobic, a Thatcher fanboy and the boss from hell. Private Eye used to describe Mail editor Paul Dacre's management technique as "double-cunting," because calling someone a cunt just once couldn't fully express the depth of his rage at underlings deemed to have performed inadquately. Well, MacKenzie got there long before him.

All the famous moments are here -- "Gotcha," "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster," the "monstering" of Elton John, and of course the front page that would have ended anyone else's career, his response to the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989. That last one is covered brilliantly, from the events in Hillsborough themselves to a nearly hour-by-hour acccount of what happened in the Sun newsroom the day before the infamous "The Truth" headline appeared, as MacKenzie weighed an alternative head ("You scum") and everyone else ran for cover from what they correctly guessed would be a calamity for the paper's reputation and circulation.

MacKenzie oozed to another part of the Murdoch empire in '94, so the 1991 edition lacks its natural conclusion, although it notes that things were headed downhill for the paper (and for the Tories) by the early '90s. A fascinating, entertaining and occasionally horrifying story.

UPDATE#1: Got hold of the 1999 edition, and re-read the tail end of the original plus the new material. Highlights include (1) that masterpiece of service journalism, STRAIGHT SEX CANNOT GIVE YOU AIDS -- OFFICIAL; (2) the relentless coverage of Conservative politicians' sex lives that gave us "Tory sleaze" and the Viz character Baxter Basics MP (while somehow not discovering John Major's affair with Edwina Currie, which Currie herself revealed in 2002); (3) Murdoch's clammy embrace of Tony Blair; and (4) the death of Diana in a car trying to outrace a pack of drooling paps. It cratered the tabs' reputation for a short time, but not their circulation. Amid all this, Murdoch, tiring of MacKenzie, moved him over to the newish Sky satellite TV operation, quietly ending a tenure at the Sun that had survived the Elton John libel fiasco and THE TRUTH about Hillsborough. Now tracking down the 2013 update, covering the era when things got really juicy.

UPDATE #2: Spent $14.93 on the third and presumably last edition, from 2013, which works out to about 60 cents per page of new material (the introduction and a few additional pages in the chronology at the end of the book). Maybe not my best spending decision, value-for-money-wise, but worth it to relive the humiliation and universal scorn heaped on Rupert and his merry band of mutants during the phone-hacking and police-bribing scandals.

[John Pollard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book 26 years after it was published because one of the authors, Chris Horrie, joined my 5-a-side football group in East Sheen! The book seems very well researched and is an interesting journey back through the Thatcher years. I am left with a bad taste in the mouth from the whole unsavoury spectacle of Rupert Murdoch's empire and small minded, right wing xenophobic, homophobic and immoral newspapers with the Sun leading the charge. The crossover between politics and the Murdoch press is nauseating, from Thatcher to Blair. How has Murdoch been allowed to dominate newpaper and TV - by having politicians in his pocket and working with parties who further his business political interests. The writing style was very balanced, not really embellishing the stories, more reporting them in a fairly flat way, if that is possible with this content. So it wasn't a page turner for me and although good (3 stars) it didn't quite make "very good" for me (4 stars).

[John B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely no dry, boring boardroom bio! It tells the fascinating story of arguably Britain's most controversial newspaper, The Sun, from its beginnings in 1969 to the late 90s. The book is written in a style that reflects the sort of 'mockney' character assumed by Kelvin Mackenzie, and is a very entertaining and informative read.

The description of British newspapers in the 1960s is particularly interesting, and as the story unfolds, especially during the Mackenzie regime, you get a fabulous history lesson in 1980s pop culture. The book also goes into great depth about the huge furor surrounding the way The Sun covered the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

Definitely well worth a punt, innit!

[steev · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a really amazing overview of THE SUN newspaper in the post-Rupert Murdoch era. tells the story of maniac editor Kelvin MacKenzie, THE SUN's coverageof the Falkland's War, Murdoch's anti-union activities, etc

depressing stuff, but also pretty damn amusing. you'll hopefully never touch a Murdoch-owned paper again after reading.

it's out-of-print and used copies are bizarrely expensive. gee, i sure hope there isn't a corporate media "conspiracy" to suppress this book.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and damning history of the Sun newspaper, and by extension the United Kingdom from the late 60s to mid-90s. It's difficult to overstate the influence the Sun has had on British politics, and this book does a great job of describing the Sun's internal culture and explaining the ways that it has used and misused its power. One of the best things about the book is its gleeful tone, which makes the stories of stupidity and greed and thuggish mean-spiritedness seem even more disturbing.

[John Levon · Rating 4 out of 5]

By now we're all familiar with the scurrilous behaviour of the Murdoch organisation, but this old book is still a rollicking read, and a great way of cementing your natural hatred of Mr Kelvin Mackenzie.

[Sienna]

So far very interesting and entertaining.