Former Croydon Advertiser editor David Randall has published a new book describing 13 journalists who he describes as “the best that ever lived”.

Writers in The Great Reporters comprise nine Americans and four Britons, ten men and three women, whose lives were full of adventure, wit and ingenuity.

David said: “Each profile describes the reporter’s life and major stories, how they were obtained, and their impact. Packed with anecdotes, and inspiring accounts of difficulties overcome, the book quotes extensively from each reporter¹s work.

“There’s also a chapter on the history of reporting, charting the technologies and attitudes that made it the way it is from the invention of the telegraph to the Internet.

“The Great Reporters is not just the story of 13 remarkable people, it is the story of how society’s information hunter-gatherers succeed in bringing us all we need to know.”

The 13 are Meyer Berger, Nellie Bly, Edna Buchanan, James Cameron, Richard Harding Davies, Floyd Gibbons, Ann Leslie, AJ Liebling, JA MacGahan, Hugh McIlvanney, Ernie Pyle, William Howard Russell and George Seldes.

Ipswich-born David went to Clare College, Cambridge, to read economics. In 1974, soon after graduation, he joined the Croydon Advertiser as a trainee reporter.

He progressed to become sub-editor, deputy editor and, in 1980, editor of what was then the largest circulation local weekly in Britain.

He began freelancing for national newspapers, and in 1981 joined the Observer as deputy sports editor, where he wrote the ‘Sidelines’ column. This led to his first book, ‘Great Sporting Eccentrics’, published in 1985.

In 1990 he left for Kenya to redesign the Sunday Standard of Nairobi, and after leaving The Observer in 1993 did consultancy work for The Times, Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and Forturo in Spain, as well as The Moscow Times. His wide experience led to his 1996 anecdotal text book ‘The Universal Journalist’.

In late 1995 he went to Moscow to relaunch Kapital, and became managing director of its publisher, Independent Press. In early 1997, he resigned to resume work as a consultant, completing projects on Moscow’s evening paper, Vecherniy Moskva, and the paper Pushkin founded, Literaturna Gazetta.

Back in the UK, he developed ideas for Internet-based local information networks. Since 1998 he has worked as a news executive at The Independent and Independent on Sunday. He is also a columnist, lecturer and after-dinner speaker.