Wordsville

***** (5 stars - an exceptional book of the very highest quality, regardless of genre as per Bookseller+Publisher ratings system)

Published by Scribe, $59.5, hb, ISBN 9781921640377

This engrossing biography which unfolds against the backdrop of the history of The Age, journalism and media ownership, pays tribute to Graham Perkin, an extraordinarily talented man widely regarded as Australia’s greatest editor of the 20th century; a man whose life was tragically cut short at 45.

For nine years during one of Australia’s most significant periods of social and political change, in the ‘golden age of newspapers, Perkin — a pioneer, particularly in the area of investigative journalism — edited and transformed The Age, elevating it to its status as one of the world’s top newspapers. It had come a long way from its Dickensian days of ‘hot metal’ technology, when green-bespectacled subs wielded great power and reporters had to pay for their own typewriters.

Believing that a newspaper can effect social change, Perkin fearlessly set about exposing corruption and dodgy government activities. Wooed by media moguls, while unpopular with some politicians, he provided lifelong inspiration to many people including his biographer, veteran investigative journalist and author Ben Hills (Blue Murder), with whom he worked for six years. Other notable ‘Perkin’s people’ include Phillip Adams, Les Tanner and Michelle Grattan. A must-read for journos, journalism students, and newspaper devotees, and a must-have for media studies/Australian history collections.

© Paula Grunseit 2010

This review from Bookseller+Publisher magazine (May/June 2010, Vol 89, No 8) was first published by Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

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