The Book's Gotcha

Life at uni is about to enter 'the writing' phase - exciting times.

The website I've been putting together is finished and for a while my mind is free of thinking about html, links and whether things will still be working when I turn the computer back on (naughty cyber-pixies creep in at night I'm sure!).

So, the first writing exercise, a book review. Apparently reviews should not express personal opinion. Instead they should explain whether the book meets the objectives it sets for itself.

I hadn't found this out when I wrote the review below. However, it's nice to indulge in a bit of personal opinion while I still have the chance. The book is definitely worth a read if you can find one of the elusive copies still doing the rounds (try amazon or the library).....

"Peter Chippindale and Chris Horrie’s ‘Stick It Up Your Punter’ made me laugh before I’d even bought a copy!

It’s a hard book to get hold of - this does not mean, like me, you can’t have some fun trying. Shop assistants will smile quizzically at you, with a glint in their eye, when you tell them the title before politely replying that it’s not in stock.

Say the title out loud and the syncopation of the words hints at the direct, funny and often darkly satirical language throughout this entertaining history of The Sun newspaper.

The book covers each stage of the Sun’s growth and development, from the early days when Larry Lamb and Rupert Murdoch re-launched the paper, to the infamous period when Kelvin MacKenzie was editor at the ‘Current Bun’.

If you haven’t heard of MacKenzie before reading the book, you are likely to be intrigued by him after. MacKenzie stands out as a typically Dickensian character, a dark and omniscient presence at Fortress Wapping, the paper’s docklands base from the eighties.

MacKenzie is passionate about The Sun, a workaholic and a gifted tabloid editor (still often hailed as one of the greatest). He leads the paper into an era of record sales, however MacKenzie is a flawed hero, lewd, crude and a risk taker.

The book documents the drama surrounding MacKenzie's more infamous headline stories, offering an intriguing insiders account of daily life at a British tabloid paper.

Like most stories about flawed, eccentric men with power, the book makes for compelling reading. MacKenzie’s vocabulary and management style, similar to that of an East End gangster in his prime, make the story all the more addictive.

If this book were not a factual account of The Sun’s history, its authors would be recognised for their witty portrayal of a cast of brilliantly over-the-top characters contained within a fast moving and addictive plot line. However, this is not a novel and on reflection the book draws out darker undertones as it describes the excesses of tabloid newspaper culture.

Stick It Up Your Punter leaves you informed about its subject while also stimulating a healthy curiosity to find out more. I have unwittingly become curiouser and curiouser about MacKenzie and his Machiavellian overlord Murdoch, ever since finishing reading."