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Ex-editor’s two books reprinted within space of two months

Two books written by a former weekly newspaper editor have been reprinted within two months of each other.

Don Booker, who edited the Barnsley Chronicle, has seen his autobiography ‘A Barnsley Lad’ back on the shelves along with ‘Monk Bretton Bygones’.

The autobiography features a foreword by Don’s friend Sir Michael Parkinson.

It records his work as a journalist and crusader for the cause of the town where he was born – and where he found ‘Parky’ a job in the Chronicle news room.

Barnsley lad

The book covers 60 years in local journalism, starting on the Chronicle front counter taking adverts and reaching the editor’s chair of one of the UK’s best-selling weeklies.

It also revisits many of the exotic places visited by members of the Northern Group of Motoring Writers over the past 40 years.

Said Don:”They were exciting times for the motor industry and for motoring writers.”

Don’s other book, Monk Bretton Bygones, has sold more than 10,000 copies with all profit going to Barnsley Hospice and the village church where he was warden for 42 years.

He was honoured by the Queen in the New Year Honours becoming an MBE for services to journalism and the community and chosen a Millennium hero by the people of Barnsley for work as a warden, scout leader and hospice founder.