The Journalist in British Fiction and Film by Sarah Lonsdale (Bloomsbury, £19.99)
It is little wonder that there are so many novels and films about journalism. As Sarah Lonsdale points out in her thorough and entertaining book, the “swashbuckling loveable rogues” found in the novels of Evelyn Waugh, Michael Frayn and Robert Harris need only a minimum of fictional embellishment.
Lonsdale begins her account with the journalists portrayed by Edwardian novelists as social crusaders “stealing out inconspicuously at night, to do their good work”; she closes it with the advent of the internet age and the findings of the Leveson inquiry presenting a darker image of the reporter’s role.
Lonsdale contrasts the current jaundiced British attitude with the noble depiction of fearless journalists in America. From All the President’s Men to last year’s Spotlight, she points out that US journalists are portrayed as indefatigable seekers after truth. Their British counterparts are broken, alcoholic, amoral—and more interesting.
Novelists are attracted to the newspaper world because it seems to teeter on the brink of extinction while reflecting the upheavals of the age. These days journalists tend to stay at their desks and scan the internet for stories. Anyone trying to fictionalise journalism now is going to have a much harder task.
It is little wonder that there are so many novels and films about journalism. As Sarah Lonsdale points out in her thorough and entertaining book, the “swashbuckling loveable rogues” found in the novels of Evelyn Waugh, Michael Frayn and Robert Harris need only a minimum of fictional embellishment.
Lonsdale begins her account with the journalists portrayed by Edwardian novelists as social crusaders “stealing out inconspicuously at night, to do their good work”; she closes it with the advent of the internet age and the findings of the Leveson inquiry presenting a darker image of the reporter’s role.
Lonsdale contrasts the current jaundiced British attitude with the noble depiction of fearless journalists in America. From All the President’s Men to last year’s Spotlight, she points out that US journalists are portrayed as indefatigable seekers after truth. Their British counterparts are broken, alcoholic, amoral—and more interesting.
Novelists are attracted to the newspaper world because it seems to teeter on the brink of extinction while reflecting the upheavals of the age. These days journalists tend to stay at their desks and scan the internet for stories. Anyone trying to fictionalise journalism now is going to have a much harder task.
