Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain's First Investigative Journalist

Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain's First Investigative Journalist book cover

Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain's First Investigative Journalist

Author(s): W. Sydney Robinson (Author)

  • Publisher: Robson Press
  • Publication Date: 12 May 2012
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 281 pages
  • ISBN-10: 1849542945
  • ISBN-13: 9781849542944

Book Description

Winner of the Political Book Awards 2013 Best Political Biography. The era of sensational tabloid journalism began in Britain in the summer of 1885 when W. T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, ran a newspaper campaign entitled ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’. In a series of flesh-creeping articles, the editor revealed how he had ‘purchased’ a child of thirteen from her parents for sinister purposes darkly hinted at to the reader. The result was a two-week national panic, culminating in the raising of the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen – and the conviction of Stead for kidnapping the child unwittingly at the centre of his story. In this pioneering biography, author W. Sydney Robinson follows Stead from his modest beginnings as the son of a Nonconformist minister in Newcastle to his years of power as an influential London newspaper editor before later being dismissed as a madman for his obsession with the occult and (more unfairly) promoting world peace. He was last seen helping women and children into lifeboats as the Titanic went down. Always sure in the righteousness of his cause, and regarding no methods as too extreme for his ends, Stead remains, in the age of Leveson, both a model and a warning for investigative journalists worldwide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘Given the current headlines, W Sydney Robinson’s admirably thoughtful and economical biography could hardly be better timed. Closely researched and briskly written, it does an excellent job of explaining one of the most extraordinary individuals in journalistic history’. –Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times

At a time when the Leveson Inquiry provides many shocks, this timely, well-written biography of the brilliant, flawed Victorian journalist – who made up quotes and twisted the truth in order to right wrongs – vividly demonstrates that breaking rules can lead to fame but also to downfall . –Bel Mooney, Daily Mail

This is, quite simply, a marvellous book, the best I have read this year so far. Every politician and journalist should slip a copy of this slim, brilliantly written volume by a new young author into their holiday luggage this summer. Lord Justice Leveson should not leave home without it. –Lord Lexden, The House Magazine

a timely study of Britain’s first investigative journalist Tobias Grey, The Wall Street Journal

A lively and laconic biography John Pemble, London Review of Books

gives a singular editor his rightful place in the history of journalism –Western Mail

a timely study of Britain’s first investigative journalist Tobias Grey, The Wall Street Journal

A lively and laconic biography. –John Pemble, London Review of Books

a timely study of Britain’s first investigative journalist Tobias Grey, The Wall Street Journal

A lively and laconic biography John Pemble, London Review of Books

gives a singular editor his rightful place in the history of journalism –Western Mail

About the Author

Will Robinson is a historian and journalist.

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