
Words as Weapons
Selected Writing 1980-1990
Paul Foot(Author)
Verso Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. October 1990
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-86091-527-0 (ISBN)
Description
Voted 1989 Journalist of the Year for his tireless investigative reporting, Paul Foot is that rarest of creatures--a journalist with a mass audience and a clear socialist commitment.
In this sparkling collection of his writing over the past decade, Foot moves from ferocious salvoes against the Tories and their friends in high (and often low) places, through the Labour Party's feeble opposition and the socialist ideas it seems to have forgotten, to portraits of great dissenters in English radical history: Godwin, Shelley, Mary Shelley, George Orwell and Ian Botham.
Paul Foot speaks in different voices to different audiences but underpinning all his work, whether it is for the Daily Mirror or the London Review of Books, lies a respect for the power of the written word to intervene--to right injustice, to expose corruption and to puncture the smug hypocrisy of a self-righteous, conspiratorial elite.
In this sparkling collection of his writing over the past decade, Foot moves from ferocious salvoes against the Tories and their friends in high (and often low) places, through the Labour Party's feeble opposition and the socialist ideas it seems to have forgotten, to portraits of great dissenters in English radical history: Godwin, Shelley, Mary Shelley, George Orwell and Ian Botham.
Paul Foot speaks in different voices to different audiences but underpinning all his work, whether it is for the Daily Mirror or the London Review of Books, lies a respect for the power of the written word to intervene--to right injustice, to expose corruption and to puncture the smug hypocrisy of a self-righteous, conspiratorial elite.
Reviews / Votes
For his ever-tighter grasp of the techniques of expose, and his production of it on a seemingly industrial scale, the award of Journalist of the Year goes to Paul Foot. -- Russell Davies * What the Papers Say * Paul Foot of the Daily Mirror is Britain's most brilliant investigative journalist. He specialises in championing causes others have given up as lost ... [he] is the uncomfortable conscience who will not go away. That is what real campaigning journalism is all about. * Sunday People *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
471 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-86091-527-0 (9780860915270)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Person
Paul Foot writes a weekly page for the Daily Mirror, and contributes regularly to Socialist Worker and the London Review of Books. He won the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year Award twice (in 1972 and 1989) and was named Campaigning Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards in 1980. He has published numerous books including The Politics of Harold Wilson, The Rise of Enoch Powell, Red Shelley, Who Killed Hanratty?, Murder at the Farm and Who Framed Colin Wallace?