“The life of Claud Cockburn … [is] deftly narrated by his son, the exceptional and award-winning foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn … Cockburn senior was a hero to my generation of would-be journalists. He was the living bridge between the political storms of the 1930s and the early satire-boom of Private Eye in the 1960s.”
—Andrew Marr, New Statesman
“****”
—Roger Lewis, Daily Telegraph
“The story of Claud Cockburn and the Week, the deadly little newsletter he set up in 1933, shows that power is not always deaf to truth.”
—Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books
“Deft … Claud was an imperfect man, but his intensities and animations, and his habit of independent thought, make him well worth meeting here.”
—Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review
“Described by Graham Greene as the greatest journalist of the 20th century and attacked by senator Joseph McCarthy as “one of the most dangerous ‘reds’ in the world” … the remarkable life of Claud Cockburn … is being told by his son, Patrick, in a book which hails him as the inventor of “guerrilla journalism”.”
—Duncan Campbell, Observer
“Patrick Cockburn has produced a fascinating book about his father’s life, with some excellent insights relevant to journalism today. A great read for all but a compulsory text for any aspiring journalists out there.”
—Paul Donovan, Irish Post
“Cockburn’s life was a scurrilous, subversive but dedicated pursuit of the truth (well, mostly) in defiance of authority, while also having a great deal of fun … He is in many ways one of the great models of what a journalist should be – curious, nonconformist, sceptical and dogged.”
—Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail
“A fascinating book about his father’s life, with some excellent insights relevant to journalism today. A great read for all but a compulsory text for any aspiring journalists out there.”
—Paul Donovan, Morning Star
“Remarkable … a fascinating and subtle portrait of a paradoxical career.”
—John R. MacArthur, Spectator
“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
“Few reporters have put entire ruling classes on notice the way Cockburn did as editor of The Week.”
—Andrew Holter, Baffler
“A rattling-good read … provides a new summing-up of [Claud Cockburn’s] brilliant and manic press career and his role in the invention of “guerrilla journalism””
—Conor O’Clery, Irish Times
“Vividly recounts an extraordinary life which can still inspire writers today … Patrick Cockburn’s deeply researched book into his father’s early life presents to us a complex and attractive figure whose attitude and methods can still teach us something about what journalism can and should be.”
—Anthony McCarthy, Catholic Herald
“[Patrick Cockburn] has written a life that deals with much that was omitted or glossed over in the autobiographies … [Claud] Cockburn had many rare gifts as a journalist; it is rarer still to find them combined in one person. Curiosity, courage, intelligence, attention to language, charm, and fluency are all obvious.”
—Andrew Brown, Church Times
“The story of Claud could make an amusing, informative TV series, particularly his cat-and-mouse antics with MI5 while he was running the Week.”
—Peter McKay, The Oldie
“Interesting, challenging, and revealing”
—Jack Power, Irish Examiner
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