AddThis SmartLayers

Sixties newsroom inspires former journalist’s novel

A former journalist has written a novel based on her experiences of starting out in the industry in the 1960s.

Celia Andrews worked for regional newspapers including the Bath Chronicle and Western Daily Press and then spent 20 years as editor of the Bath and Wells Diocesan newspaper The Grapevine.

Her new book Press Ganged is a novel loosely based on her own personal experiences, which tells the story of a raw recruit starting a career in journalism in the 1960s.

The book is set in a newsroom before computers or mobile phones and tells the personal stories of the journalists there – led by by a fictional press baron based loosely on Rupert Murdoch.

Said Celia:  “The stories covered are fictional, loosely based on personal experience, ranging from defying the Ministry of Defence to probing the occult, uncovering sleeze in high places to monitoring progress of an airport extension protest, and generally being present at people’s joyous and tragic moments.”

“The headlines might not always tell it as it was. The whole is told against a background of life in the computer- and-mobile- phone-free newsroom with a cast of news gatherers.”

Celia, 72, is married to a vicar and currently editor of a parish magazine. She has written two other novels previously.

Her book is available from Amazon.