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Confessions

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Confessions

By: Edward Stourton
Narrated by: Edward Stourton
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Edward Stourton was born into a life of privilege.

The son of expat parents in colonial Nigeria, Ed was sent back to Britain to be educated by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth, at the time when, it was latter revealed, the school and monastery were the setting for serial abuse cases. He then went up to Cambridge, where his life as an undergraduate gave him access to a network of future ministers, judges and newspaper editors. As a young journalist, he reported first from party conferences and picket lines and then from war zones, witnessing the events making international headlines, from Haiti to Hong Kong, before returning home to join the infighting on BBC Radio 4's Today.

During this time, the Empire has given way to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, men-only clubs have been replaced by Me Too, and instead of a choice selection of voices on a handful of radio and television channels, we have millions of voices on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.

The world has changed, and so has Ed. Brought face to face with the author of his obituary and his own inevitable mortality, Ed is prompted to reflect on the life he has led and the events that have shaped him.

In Confessions, he describes this remarkable journey with candour, humour and the insight that only forty years' experience of writing and reporting can provide.

'Thoughtful, witty, occasionally comic, often effortlessly profound - not a conventional journalistic memoir.' Sunday Times

'If you value the perspective and judgment of one who has covered, often from the frontline, the major events of the past four decades, then snap up a copy.' Mail on Sunday

'A book brimming with surprises and insight.' - Nicholas Coleridge

'A searingly honest insight into the life of one of our great journalists. Hugely entertaining too.' John Humphrys

© Edward Stourton 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Art & Literature Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Journalists, Editors & Publishers Media Studies Social Sciences Entertainment Inspiring War

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Critic reviews

The quiet confessions of a Radio 4 gent ... You can't help hearing the familiar tones of the author speaking the words ... Entertaining ... nicely self-mocking ... I'm glad to have his civilised and ever-optimistic voice in my ear. (Ysenda Maxtone Graham)
A searingly honest insight into the life of one of our great journalists. Hugely entertaining too. (John Humphrys)
A model of its kind. Calmly, bravely written, infused by his Catholic upbringing, and intriguingly haunted by the posh question ... filled with qualities that are the marks of a good life: candour and courage, deployed with generosity and modesty, all of them here in spades. (Adam Nicolson)
A wonderful, poignant memoir - fluent, compelling and full of adventure. (Cristina Odone)
A clear-eyed and compelling account of a life, told with honesty and much wry humour. (Luke Jennings)
A book brimming with surprises and insight. I have known Edward Stourton for fifty years, but there have been adventures in his life of which I knew nothing whatever until I read this fascinating memoir. He has led a Life in Full - and has the brainpower to analyse it all with wit and perspective. (Nicholas Coleridge)
Fascinating. Much more than a series of swashbuckling journalistic yarns, Confessions also describes the "awokening", as Stourton puts it, of someone born to privilege who has come increasingly to question the assumptions of his caste. He retains a kind of shaken, chastened faith, and a moral passion which he has, on the right occasions, allowed to break through the mask of journalistic impartiality. (Harry Eyres)
A stonkingly good read - wise, informative and very funny. (Andrew Mitchell, MP)
One of our most thoughtful and well-travelled journalists, Stourton manages both to educate and entertain with the inside track on a reporting career in the world's hotspots, and also to dig deeper to examine the role of memory in shaping our life stories. (Peter Stanford)
Ed Stourton's book is not only a gripping personal saga of the professional life of one of our top broadcasters, it is a valuable social document of an era of rapid media transformation. Brilliantly written, witty, searingly honest, his many fans will be delighted. A must read for every aspiring journalist. (John Cornwell)
All stars
Most relevant
From start to finish Es manages to capture his listeners. His doesn’t make u feel sorry him with the hurdles he has to go through in life particularly his prostate cancer. All good wishes Ed and keep going !

Such a good read

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have always liked Ed Stourton, but it is the first book I have listened to detailing his life. He is a very accomplished journalist and always enjoy listening to him on the radio. He has such a lovely voice.

Most interesting

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This book is a gem.
Ed Stourton was always my favourite on Today. In the days of news & objectivity he was a master.
I never listen to R4 since lockdown & the great reset in just everything….
We live in a dull age of dumbed down everything re the media where estuary is thought of smart & a good clear accent is posh & white privileged. How wrong they are.

Edward Stourton belongs to a bygone age of well educated thinkers. Written with candour, humour & honesty

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I have long admired Ed Stourton for his broadcast work though this is the first book of him I have actively come across. It provides a fascinating view of life as a Catholic broadcaster in these days of secularism and I had always wondered what made him seem to have such a strong moral compass. Some aspects were disappointing - but on the whole it is a thoroughly honest and truly engaging read.

Interesting insights

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Still enjoyable but one wonders why the Audible recording was made while Mr Stourton was (audibly) suffering from a heavy cold?

Sound quality

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