Home Truths

The life of John Junor, Fleet Street legend, explored in movingly honest detail by his daughter, the journalist and broadcaster Penny Junor.

John Junor was a brilliant newspaperman. As editor of the Sunday Express for 32 years he wielded more power than many of the politicians he wrote about, mixing with prime ministers, princes, captains of industry and film stars. He was witty, charismatic and flirtatious; he was also a difficult, bad-tempered bully with a vicious tongue.

Like him or loathe him, no one could ignore him, and his public life flourished. Yet his family life was far from idyllic. HIs domineering and destructive side led him to damage those he cared for the most, in particular, his wife. Although he never stopped loving her, they lived apart for the last 18 years of his life as she tried to rebuild the confidence that he had shattered.

Two years after his death, Penny Junor was compelled to set down her father’s biography, partly to celebrate the life of a powerful and influential public figure, and partly to come to terms with her own emotionally charged relationship with him. Drawing on interviews with his contemporaries, friends, adversaries and colleagues, as well as his own family, this is a fascinating portrait of both the public and private life of John Junor.