Book: Red Top by Bill Coles  

Published by Paperbooks (Legend Press)Review by Lesley Finlay

Bill Coles has worked at the top of his industry – the maligned and discredited UK tabloid market – for 25 years. He knows what he is talking about and shares his considerable knowledge of how newspapers really work in a lively, engaging way; much like news should be written.

I have a vested interest.  As a former sub-editor on The Sun, I happened to marry an ex-Fleet Street reporter, whose tales of life on the road as a tabloid hack have kept many a dinner party entertained over our wine-laden dinner table.

Red Top is subtitled Being A Reporter: Ethically, Legally and with Panache. That trio of adjectives is key to Coles’s task – you can and should do all three if you’re going to be successful.

Coles does a brilliant sales pitch for one of the best jobs in the land – it’s fun, risky, dangerous but ultimately rewarding.  He, of course, writes brilliantly with A-grade fluency which will be the envy of many would-be reporters. (I do know what I’m talking about, having subbed local newspaper stories and lectured journalism undergraduates recently.)

He quite rightly has a pop at the po-faced naysayers that make up the post-Leveson campaign like Hacked Off, but also lifts the lid on some sharp practices that were rightly curbed by the Press Complaints Commission.

This book will either completely inspire or put off students who want to be journalists. It reminded me of a postcard a friend sent to me: ‘I can’t decide whether to be a good example or a horrible warning.’

Get this brilliant, brilliant book – and you decide.