Crusaders in Chains is a fascinating, amusing and eminently readable romp through the 50+ years Robin Esser has spent working in Fleet Street and the UK press; starting as an Oxford undergrad reporter and ending as the Editor of The Sunday Express. Brimming over with annecdotes and juicy behind the scences stories the biography also charts the huge social, technological and political changes that have fundamentally reshaped the UK press ... and in Robin Esser's view not always for the best.
We think this book, from such an authoratative insider as Robin Esser, is required reading for anyone who has an interest in the UK Press industry.
In this fascinating insight into a period of social upheaval and technological change Robin Esser charts the decline of the old factory-style newspaper offices homogeneously clustered in Fleet Street and the rise of hi-tech offices in the diaspora. He reveals how he saved oil magnate Paul Getty from an unwanted marriage, was in China on the day Saigon fell to the Viet Cong, set Nigel Dempster on the path to becoming a famous gossip writer, scooped the first personal stories of the Apollo 11 astronauts who flew to the moon, encouraged the Earl of Lichfield to become a successful photographer, sent Paul Dacre to Fleet Street, became a pen pal of Cherie Blair and much more besides. But throughout these often amusing memoirs Robin Esser reminds us of the increasing threat to freedom of speech in Great Britain posed by an ever-tightening control of the Press.
Daily Mail - Robin Esser's story of fighting for a free Press (over a very long lunch of Champagne, sherry and Chablis!) Read more
Author
About Robin Esser
Robin Esser spent 57 Years working on national newspapers and describes every one as “the most extraordinary fun”. As an Oxford undergrad he earned his first £8.40 per shift on the Sunday Express writing stories of student indiscretions and went on, via a stint as the Daily Express’s infamous William Hickey, to edit the Sunday paper in 1988.
