Magaret Renn.
MARGARET RENN
PAUL FOOT: A LIFE IN POLITICS (2024)
Paul Foot (born 1937) was a political campaigner and investigative journalist. His politics were of the left, and he was for many years a member of the Socialist Workers Party. His father Sir Hugh Foot was the last Governor of Cyprus and later became, as Lord Caradon, the UK ambassador to the United Nations. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, where his contemporaries included several who would later work with him at Private Eye magazine - Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton and Christopher Booker. After reading law at Oxford University, His first job was as a journalist on the Daily Record in Glasgow. It was his observation of the dire circumstances of the working class during his three years in Glasgow that drew him to socialism. Returning to London, he developed a long and influential career as an investigative journalist, exposing corruption and injustice.
The Independent wrote of Margaret Renn’s Paul Foot biography: "One of the great British investigative journalists of the 20th century ... The accounts of many of his press campaigns, including about the murders of Blair Peach, Helen Smith and Stephen Lawrence, still make for powerful reading." The Guardian described the book as ‘Impeccably lively and well narrated’.
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Margaret Renn is a former close colleague of Paul Foot, having worked with him at the Socialist Worker and then at the Daily Mirror for ten years until 1993. She later worked at the BBC, producing investigative documentaries for Radio 4 and for the BBC World Service. She for three years directed the Centre for Investigative Journalism. The Centre is a think tank which provides courses in investigative journalism, screenings, and talks.
