It's All News To Me: How I Got Locked Inside The BBC For 25 Years by Jeremy Vine (From Worcester News)

It's All News To Me: How I Got Locked Inside The BBC For 25 Years by Jeremy Vine

10:20am Wednesday 4th July 2012 in Books

NON-FICTION
It's All News To Me: How I Got Locked Inside The BBC For 25 Years by Jeremy Vine is published in hardback by Simon & Schuster, priced £18.99. Available now.

As the presenter of a popular Radio 2 show - and a broadcaster with decades of experience - Jeremy Vine is used to getting people to open up to him.

Now, he is the one telling his life story, or rather specifically, the story of his life working for the BBC.

Indeed, there is only a short chapter devoted to Vine's early years, with him preferring to get stuck in with one of the highlights of his radio career.

Here, we learn from Vine's point of view how the famous interview with Gordon Brown came to happen - when the former prime minister was played a recording of him calling a pensioner "that bigoted woman".

It sets the tone for an intriguing, personal account of a man playing a vital part in the nation's news.

We learn of Vine's days as a cub reporter in Coventry, through to his BBC training, a defining experience as BBC's Africa correspondent, and then his move back to the UK to present Newsnight.

It's All News To Me is essential reading not only for fans of Vine but for anyone who wants the lid lifted on life as a British broadcaster today.

Vine's evident wit helps to explain why, as in the book's full title, he has ended up at the heart of the BBC for so many years.

8/10
(Review by Lauren Turner)