Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street Book

The fascinating story of the press barons of London’s Fleet Street. Hugh Cudlipp, the journalistic genius, and Cecil Harmsworth King, the formidable intellect, met in 1935 and became, in Cudlipp’s words, the “Barnum and Bailey” of Fleet Street; together, on the foundation of the populist Daily Mirror, they created the biggest publishing empire in the world.

Library Journal

Like the newspaper empire of William Randolph Hearst in America, the newspaper conglomerate and sensationalist press created by the Harmsworth family had a far-reaching impact on mass readership throughout the British Empire in the 20th century. Edwards, a prolific author of nonfiction and fiction (e.g., Murder in a Cathedral), shows how Cecil Harmsworth King, the nephew of Lord Alfred Northcliffe and Lord Harold Rothermere, along with talented editor Hugh Cudlipp, expanded upon the success of his Harmsworth uncles to turn the Daily Mirror, Sunday Pictorial, and other newspapers into widely read and influential media. These media were designed to inform by focusing on public affairs but stressed a tabloid format to appeal to a mass audience. In this scholarly study, Edwards interweaves the stories of these two newspapermen, using Dickensian detail to describe the personalities and backgrounds of the privileged King and the more modestly situated Cudlipp. On the whole, their stories merge to create a colorful and fascinating portrait of the newspaper world of early 1900s Britain. Highly recommended for large public libraries, journalism school libraries, and academic libraries with a mass communications collection.-Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.