A catalogue of tales from a life spent as a journalist can be found in a new book by a former regional newspaper editor.

The Maddison Line is the autobiography of Roy Maddison, who edited several weekly titles, including the Northumberland Gazette and The Whitehaven News.

This is the first book that Roy has written and includes anecdotes from his entire professional career, from the days of hot metal to today’s on-screen page make-up.

Roy, now retired, said: “I’ve interviewed a lot of people and seen a lot during my career.

“I put some ideas down for a book and came up with about 80,000 or 90,000 words!

“I spent 18 years as an editor in charge of an entire paper and deciding what goes in and what is left out, and suddenly the boot was on the other foot – it was a bit of a culture shock!”

Roy began his life in newspapers in the composing room of the Northern Daily Mail in West Hartlepool and went on to work as a reporter and sports editor there.

He then joined the Journal in Newcastle as a sub-editor and after writing a series on gambling was offered the job of lead sports writer on the Evening Chronicle.

During his four years there he covered Newcastle United in the glory days of Joe Harvey, and, with the team, he visited all the Football League’s great arenas – behind the scenes tales of which feature in his book.

From there he went on to work for The Sun in Manchester and The Daily Sketch in London, interviewing a variety of stars such as Eric Morecambe and Tommy Steele.

He returned to the North East in 1971, joining the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough, and in 1978 he took up his first editorship at the Shields & Wallsend Weekly News.

He also went on to edit the Northumberland Gazette, Morpeth Gazette and launch a free sheet in Berwick-upon-Tweed, before becoming director of Cumbrian Newspapers and editor of The Whitehaven News in 1987, where he stayed until retirement in 1996.

While there he raised the circulation of the paper to more than 20,000 for the first time in its history – but it wasn’t all plain-sailing.

As Roy reports in his book: “The mayor came in one publishing day to demand an explanation as to why his deputy’s picture had been in that week’s paper and not his.

“He added that in future he wanted his name first in any caption and then demanded more pictures of him should appear.”