The Chief

by Andrew Roberts

ISBN: 9781398508712

Published: 2023-08-17

'Superb...his pages fizz with character and colour' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'Scholarly and very readable' Andrew Lycett, Spectator 'Energetic and hugely entertaining' A.N.Wilson, TLS A definitive and compelling biography of Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922), the greatest press magnate in history, the genius who invented modern popular journalism, and against whom all the other great newspaper proprietors must be measured. By the time of his tragically early death at 57 in August 1922, Northcliffe had founded the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, and had also owned The Times and the Observer. At one point he owned two-thirds of all the titles on Fleet Street. He laid down the essential features of British popular journalism that we see now. He was a tough and uncompromising businessman, but in The Chief Andrew Roberts puts his ruthlessness and wilfulness in the overall context of a life of visionary business skill, journalistic brilliance, distinguished...