Harold Evans

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Harold Evans. One of the great campaigning journalists of all time, as editor of The Northern Echo in the 1960s he argued the the case for cervical smear tests for women. At The Sunday Times, he highlighted the problems of the Thalidomide children. When Rupert Murdoch bought The Times he was given the job of editor and then sacked. After writing a book which decribed how a newspaper changes when the owner becomes editorially involved, he left for America where he lives a life of apparent glamour, with his wife, magazine editor Tina Brown.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: History of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote Luxury: Silk pyjamas