Description
Radical journalist Claud Cockburn fought successfully against the political and media establishment, writing for publications as varied as The Times and Private Eye. To Graham Greene, he was the greatest journalist of the twentieth century.
Born in China in 1904 and educated alongside Evelyn Waugh, Cockburn launched into a stellar career as a Times correspondent, first in Berlin, then New York, interviewing Al Capone in Chicago, and finally Washington. He resigned in 1932 to start The Week, an anti-Nazi and anti-establishment newsletter with an influence out of all proportion to its circulation. British officials were horrified by the scoops he published. These included stories on the political influence of German appeasers - the Cliveden Set - in the British elite and the previously suppressed news of Edward VIII's abdication.
Cockburn wrote dispatches while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, he helped W. H. Auden and clashed with George Orwell. Claud's private life, too, was eventful. He was married three times, once to Jean Ross, the model for Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles.
Patrick Cockburn, himself an international journalist, chronicles his father Claud's lifelong dedication to a guerrilla campaign against the powerful on behalf of the powerless. It is a biography for today's age, in which journalism is frequently suppressed, overshadowed, undervalued, and corrupted
The Extraordinary Life of a Revolutionary Journalist
About the Author
Patrick Cockburn is a Middle East correspondent for the Independent and has worked previously for the Financial Times. He has written three books on Iraq's recent history, including the National Book Circle Awards- shortlisted The Occupation and Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (with Andrew Cockburn), as well as a memoir, The Broken Boy, and, with his son, a book on schizophrenia, Henry's Demons, which was shortlisted for a Costa Award. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006, and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009. More recently he has been awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year at the 2013 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year in British Journalism Award 2014, and Foreign Reporter of the Year in Press Awards 2014.
Reviews
Quite simply, the best Western journalist at work in Iraq today -- Seymour Hersh
A fine and courageous journalist -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
one of the best informed on-the-ground journalists -- Sidney Blumenthal
Cockburn's colorful, elegantly written account extols Claud's charisma, courage, and daring....[Cockburn] succeeds in capturing Claud's verve and staunch political principles. * Publishers Weekly *
Claud Cockburn was one of the great journalists of the 20th century, an irreverent anti-careerist, steeped in the politics of Central Europe, happiest courting risk ... Patrick [Cockburn] has now written an excellent account of him, supplying much new or buried information -- Andrew Gimson * Conservative Home *
A timely intervention -- Laura Flanders * Guardian *
Claud is shown as complicated and stubborn while also being a wholly magnetic figure who was dogged in both holding his beliefs and finding the central truth. A ruminative biography that firmly situates the power of independent, on-the-ground journalism. -- Booklist
Book Information
ISBN 9781804290743
Author Patrick Cockburn
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 450g
Born in China in 1904 and educated alongside Evelyn Waugh, Cockburn launched into a stellar career as a Times correspondent, first in Berlin, then New York, interviewing Al Capone in Chicago, and finally Washington. He resigned in 1932 to start The Week, an anti-Nazi and anti-establishment newsletter with an influence out of all proportion to its circulation. British officials were horrified by the scoops he published. These included stories on the political influence of German appeasers - the Cliveden Set - in the British elite and the previously suppressed news of Edward VIII's abdication.
Cockburn wrote dispatches while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, he helped W. H. Auden and clashed with George Orwell. Claud's private life, too, was eventful. He was married three times, once to Jean Ross, the model for Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles.
Patrick Cockburn, himself an international journalist, chronicles his father Claud's lifelong dedication to a guerrilla campaign against the powerful on behalf of the powerless. It is a biography for today's age, in which journalism is frequently suppressed, overshadowed, undervalued, and corrupted
The Extraordinary Life of a Revolutionary Journalist
About the Author
Patrick Cockburn is a Middle East correspondent for the Independent and has worked previously for the Financial Times. He has written three books on Iraq's recent history, including the National Book Circle Awards- shortlisted The Occupation and Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (with Andrew Cockburn), as well as a memoir, The Broken Boy, and, with his son, a book on schizophrenia, Henry's Demons, which was shortlisted for a Costa Award. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006, and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009. More recently he has been awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year at the 2013 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year in British Journalism Award 2014, and Foreign Reporter of the Year in Press Awards 2014.
Reviews
Quite simply, the best Western journalist at work in Iraq today -- Seymour Hersh
A fine and courageous journalist -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
one of the best informed on-the-ground journalists -- Sidney Blumenthal
Cockburn's colorful, elegantly written account extols Claud's charisma, courage, and daring....[Cockburn] succeeds in capturing Claud's verve and staunch political principles. * Publishers Weekly *
Claud Cockburn was one of the great journalists of the 20th century, an irreverent anti-careerist, steeped in the politics of Central Europe, happiest courting risk ... Patrick [Cockburn] has now written an excellent account of him, supplying much new or buried information -- Andrew Gimson * Conservative Home *
A timely intervention -- Laura Flanders * Guardian *
Claud is shown as complicated and stubborn while also being a wholly magnetic figure who was dogged in both holding his beliefs and finding the central truth. A ruminative biography that firmly situates the power of independent, on-the-ground journalism. -- Booklist
Book Information
ISBN 9781804290743
Author Patrick Cockburn
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 450g
