Tales From an Old Hack

Tales From an Old Hack is a wonderful autobiography from journalist Barbara Fisher.

A teacher from Birmingham, she decided to change her career to that of a full time journalist in West London.

How did she make the transition from a teacher to a journalist? She had worked as a teacher in Ealing for a number of years, but she had written a weekly schools' page for the Uxbridge Gazette. An editor liked her work and suggested that she consider entering the world of journalism. Which she did. (Reviewer's note: A similar incident happened to your reviewer, which is why I made the switch to journalism, too.) 

Barbara spent the next couple of decades writing for the paper, eventually becoming Chief Reporter before becoming Deputy News Editor.

The book is a whirlwind of a read, taking in the mundane points of local newspaper journalism, but also covering weightier matters such as the death of Princess Diana, and with her photographer colleague, faced the wrath of the ever fickle British public.

There were other incidents including meeting Nelson Mandela, covering hostage situations, being thrown in at the deep end on her first week, by being tasked to find a front page story, no pressure, then?

There were human interest stories, meeting with some great characters (such as Screaming Lord Sutch) learning all about the vagaries of the new data protection laws, coping with people who had just received devastating news, receiving hairstyles from celebrity hairdressers, dealing with alleged spies.

It's a very good read from a highly skilled writer and it was a real pleasure to read. (However, as a fellow hack journalist and fellow Brummie, I may well be a little bit biased!) 

However, this book is a fantastic autobiography (complete with some relevant illustrations) and it is published by The Book Guild at £9.99.

It'll make a great Christmas present for the readers in your life.