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A Day Like Today

Memoirs

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A Day Like Today

By: John Humphrys
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Summary

‘The bombshell book everyone is talking about’ DAILY MAIL

‘A radio genius … the maestro of the show’ EVENING STANDARD

As presenter of Radio 4’s Today, the nation’s most popular news programme, John Humphrys was famed for his tough interviewing. He has been at the heart of journalism for decades. Now, he offers his life story from the poverty of his post-war childhood in Cardiff, leaving school at fifteen, to the summits of broadcasting. Along the way, he recalls the experiences that have marked him most: being the first reporter at the terrible disaster in Aberfan, reporting from South Africa in the dying days of apartheid, from Ireland during the Troubles, and from the White House on Richard Nixon’s historic resignation.

With his trademark tenacity and no punches pulled, John also weighs in on the controversies of his career, the role and limitations of the BBC, and the broader health of political debate today. He hopes you’ll tune in.

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Critic reviews

‘Offers readers the best bits of an extraordinary – and lucky – life that canters through key moments of recent history…Humphrys even offers us glimpses of his human side off-mic’ Sunday Times, Best Books of the Year 2019

‘This is one of the best books ever written about our industry.’ Piers Morgan

‘The bombshell book everyone is talking about’ Daily Mail

The combative broadcaster’s memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career with some score-settling and a robust defence of his interviewing style’ Guardian

‘He bears a magnificent grudge … This is an unparalleled record of contemporary politics at the jaggy end … Wry, angry, often poignant … The BBC’s purpose, the unassailable facts, impartiality:these are his lifelong mission.’ Melanie Reid, The Times

‘Humphrys is impassioned and sometimes furious in this vivid account of his life … He writes from long experience and close observation … There are some genuine Humphrys milestones included.’ Sunday Times

‘John Humphrys is a radio genius … the maestro of the show’ David Sexton, Evening Standard

All stars
Most relevant
John Humphrys does not fit the mould of the majority of BBC newsmen. He is from a working class background in South Wales and did not go to university. Instead he worked his way up being a reporter on a local paper to eventually being the kingpin on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, a position that he held for 33 years. In this fascinating book he tells his story with his customary grumpy old man delivery; he becomes most animated in the chapters describing his days as a reporter, his description of the Aberfan tragedy is particularly poignant. He talks in depth of his days as a foreign correspondent for the BBC in Bangladesh and later the USA during the Watergate scandal and South Africa during apartheid and the Zimbabwean independence. John Humphrys can truly claim to have had a ringside seat to history during these times.

On his return to London he did not take too well to being a BBC newsreader and it was his transition to radio where he really made his name. John Humphries talks about his deep seated mistrust of those in authority and his cynicism of the establishment and he relished his role as inquisitor in chief of politicians for three decades and this is the job for which he will be most remembered. I have always found there is a tendency for the Today programme to fall into the trap of wanting to create the news rather than reporting it and John Humphries does little to confound this, describing the show (and it IS just a radio show) as the "flagship current affairs programme on the BBC" and "the most prestigious radio programme in the country". Its listeners are notoriously both vociferous and loyal and the show has itself become part of established political regime that a young John Humphrys may well have detested.

Gnarled old hack with a ringside seat to history

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Wasn't sure when I first started listening and nearly returned it. So glad I didn't. Very interesting.
The author narrates the book very well.
well worth the listen

Bloody fantastic

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I listen to 4 or 5 books a month and this is the best one I’ve listened to in years. Well written, entertaining and well read by John too. An excellent book.

Great book

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John Humphries: a name and a demeanour that a nation lived with for decades. Harrumphing and interrupting his way to be the nation's cynical consciousness, but with no obvious sign of conscience. He is angry and will always be angry.

This book changed all that. It is a revelation, but not because Humphries wants it to be. He has his revenge on enemies (and some friends) and shows more reflection on his style, role and impact than most autobiographical works manage. He starts by parodying an interview with himself, which is a bit lame, but by the end he has roamed across journalism at home and abroad, the inner workings of the mighty BBC from foreign correspondent to Today host. He is clear eyed and critical of those in power, and reveals himself to be a man weighed down by a mighty chip on his shoulder about his origins, and a mission to tilt at every pompous windmill that comes his way. He sees himself as an aggressive voice of the underdog, but recognises that in doing so he became the voice of the establishment that he never felt he was from.

I did not expect to like John Humphries - I once stood in a taxi queue behind him at Euston Station and he was impatient to the point of rudeness - but after hearing this, I did. I suspect that I ended up liking him quite a bit more than he likes himself.

revelatory

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For someone who’s been part of our lives on the radio for so many years it was remarkable to hear the stories of the arguments and the stress and the anger behind the man. Raging against authority and there at major moments in history.

Fascinating.

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