Wow! eBook
News of the world?: Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings
Author(s): Peter Burden (Author), Julia Dillon (Editor), Dan Hiscocks (Editor), Oscar Grillo (Illustrator)
- Publisher: Eye Books Ltd
- Publication Date: 5 May 2008
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 175 pages
- ISBN-10: 1903070791
- ISBN-13: 9781903070796
Book Description
‘…that is what we do – we go out and destroy other people’s lives’ – Former news editor on the “News of the World”. Do the great British public get the press the ‘Red Tops’ think they deserve? Or are the tabloids’ pious protestations of public interest really just a prurient self-serving attempt to halt declining circulation? Peter Burden examines the “News of the World’s” performance – with its Fake Sheikh and the illegal mobile phone tapping, which lead to a gaol sentence for royal reporter Clive Goodman and the resignation of the editor. Burden also highlights the papers hypocritical bleating when Mazher Mahmood, the Fake Sheikh, was himself unmasked. “News of the World? Fake Sheikhs and Royal Trappings” is a book for everyone concerned about standards in British tabloid journalism and people who care about privacy rights and the debate over serving the Public Interest vs the interest of the public.’We shouldn’t be writing about anybody’s private life at all unless there is some really powerful public need to know about it’ – Nick Davies, “Flat Earth News”.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Before Peter Burden became an author, he was many things – a fashion king, writer of radio jingles and restaurant troubadour in the 70’s, the owner of a non-winning racehorse and tycoon manque in the 80’s. He travelled to Morocco and Turkey in the early 70’s buying ethnic garments and gathering much life experience. In 1975 he launched the cult jeans brand, Midnight Blue. His first novel Rags was based on his adventures in the fashion trade, and became a best seller. Several more novels followed, including collaborations in turf fiction with John Francome and more recently was responsible for transforming Jenny Pitman into a best-selling novelist, having ghosted three best sellers for her, starting with On the Edge. He collaborated with Channel 4 in writing Jungle Janes, an account of one of the first reality TV shows which featured 12 English women (who should have known better) trekking through the jungles of North Borneo. More recently, he ghosted the posthumous autobiography of 60’s heartthrob, David Hemmings and worked with British movie icon, Leslie Phillips on his book, Hello. He has written under his own name and several pseudonyms – as genre or voice have required. Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings is his 22nd published title.
