A riveting read for would-be writers ... It's a fascinating bit of academic research ... as well as a great tour through over a century of bookshelves and movie-studio cutting rooms.
The Observer
Lonsdale's analysis reaches further back in history than most studies of the media ... A first rate-book that amply demonstrates why ... journalists who speak ... Read moretruth to power are needed more than ever.
Times Literary Supplement
[A] thorough and entertaining book.
Prospect
Sarah Lonsdale's book is a welcome addition to this body of research ... journalism seems likely to remain a source of popular culture fascination on both sides of the Atlantic, making historically informed studies like this book particularly important.
Journalism
From heroes to media scum, this book provides an assessment of how journalists have been represented in fictional form. It also makes a major contribution to considerations of the much-derided `middle-brow'. It grafts this longitudinal analysis onto a rich and engaging history of journalism itself. Reclaiming the role of the journalist for the contemporary age - journalists and the public, take note - you need each other!
Martin Conboy, Professor of Journalism History, University of Sheffield, UK
This book essential reading for anyone who wants to know how we've come to feel about journalists and journalism the way we do. Sarah Lonsdale's great and original achievement is to use fiction, film and theatre to trace the Fourth Estate's reputational ups and downs over the last 100 years. This is a work of immaculate scholarship deeply informed by Lonsdale's long and eminent career as a newspaper journalist.
Kathryn Hughes, Professor of Life Writing, University of East Anglia, UK
Lonsdale doesn't just chart the fictional journalist's cycle from villain to hero and back again but shows clearly how much and simultaneously, how little has changed over the past 100 years. The one thing that never alters is how journalists persistently live down to others' expectations and take pleasure in their ambiguous reputation. It's a strange trade and Lonsdale's fascinating guide to how others see us should be both a warning and something for us all to aim for. If as a journalist you don't want to anger or irritate people you're in the wrong job.
Susie Boniface, journalist, aka `Fleet Street Fox'
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