Founder of New Scientist, Sunday Times journalist and BBC broadcaster who made complicated subjects easy to understandA powerful mind coupled with a gift for rendering complex ideas in popular terms made Tom Margerison, who has died aged 90, an outstanding ambassador for science. Equally at home in print or on radio and television, he was in at the beginning of New Scientist, a notable science correspondent on the Sunday Times and the resident boffin of the Tonight programme. His popular science books were acclaimed, and he was drawn to the executive side of the press and broadcasting.He joined the Sunday Times in 1961, the year that the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. When Gagarin visited Britain, Margerison looked after him at his press conference. He became a trusted source for news of Soviet technology, and reported for the BBC's Panorama programme on the Red Army's ammunition production at Novosibirsk, in south-west Siberia.For a BBC documentary on Siberia, Margerison, who never wore a coat, impressed his Russian hosts by walking out in -40C in a light Marks and Spencer suit. He also took part in sub-zero swimming competitions under the ice, outdrank his hosts and evaded his minder and hotel room bugs, filing secretly to the Sunday Times.When MI5 tried to harness his exceptional access to the Russians, he was unimpressed by its recruitment technique. Asked to lunch at the Cumberland Hotel in London, he looked around the room and saw a... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
Leading Sunday Times journalist who was the first editor of its groundbreaking investigative Insight unitRon Hall, a former top executive of the Sunday Times in its pre-Murdoch golden era, has died aged 79. Hall's distinctions were many: first editor of the paper's successful investigative unit,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I had the luck to have two books published by Tom Rosenthal. He combined the sharpest of editorial eyes and a penetrating critical intelligence with warm encouragement and support. Working with him, I got to know and love an exceptional personality. But, as I discovered, beneath his powerful,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury imprint Absolute Press has signed two new cookbooks from TV chef Tom Kerridge. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Rosenthal, former managing director of Secker and Warburg, has died at the age of 78.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Mary Cowan, who has died aged 99, rebelled against her privileged background and in the 1930s became a communist.She was born in Edinburgh, where her father, John Jameson, was the Conservative MP for Edinburgh West. Her mother, Margaret (nee Smith), was the daughter of a master of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Britain's first homegrown existentialist star, he failed to follow up the huge success of his 1956 book, The OutsiderFor a few dazzling months, Colin Wilson, who has died aged 82, was taken at his own valuation in his diary as "the major literary genius of our century", a writer destined to be... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher of military history books and husband of Jilly CooperLeo Cooper, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Parkinson's disease, was a publisher with a zeal for military history, who also enjoyed some notoriety as the husband of the novelist Jilly Cooper.Leo's hospitality was out of all... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Paul Westlake, who has died of cancer aged 65, was a pillar of the radical publishing world from the mid-1970s onwards. He was an advocate of workers' co-operatives and gained much experience in ensuring that the output of independent publishers reached the bookshops.In autumn 1976,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Journalist, biographer and author who explored the history of property ownership in AmericaThe Scottish author Andro Linklater was fascinated by the relationship between people and land. His death at the age of 68 from a heart attack came while he was on the isle of Eigg, researching for a new... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic is featuring its first ever TV ads for Liz Pichon's Tom Gates series next week,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, was elected president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Sunday afternoon. In addition to Solomon, the following officers were elected: Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin has paid tribute to thriller giant Tom Clancy, who has died at the age of 66. Tom Clancy... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling author Tom Sharpe, perhaps best known for his 1974 novel Porterhouse Blue, has died... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom McCarthy and James Salter are among the winners of the inaugural Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes. Tom McCarthy and James Salter are among the winners of the inaugural Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes, announced Monday at Yale University's Beinecke Rare... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon and Schuster UK has acquired two books by award-winning New York Times bestseller Tom... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A mob wife fleeing her past — and a dirty U.S. marshal — gets a little help from a mysterious stranger in Epperson's modern noir tale of revenge and greed.If I were a damsel in distress fleeing a past and people who wanted me dead, like Gina Cicala in the modern noir thriller "Sailor" by Tom... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 09:18 The late lord chief justice Tom Bingham has been awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing for his book The Rule of Law (Penguin). Bingham, a former master of the rolls, lord chief justice, and senior law lord, died in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 09:18 The late lord chief justice Tom Bingham has been awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing for his book The Rule of Law (Penguin). Bingham, a former master of the rolls, lord chief justice, and senior law lord, died in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 18/02/2011 - 08:10 Michael Joseph has acquired world all language rights to an illustrated memoir by 16-year-old Olympic and Commonwealth diver Tom Daley. Commissioning editor Daniel Bunyard made the deal with Jonathan Harris of Luxton... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As Simon & Schuster prepares to release O: A Presidential Novel, based on the Obama administration and starring a thinly veiled Barack Obama as the character "O," the publisher is trying to keep the identity of its anonymous author under wraps. Slate imagines a few possibilities.[more ...] Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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