The Fleet Street Girls – by Julie Welch (Hardcover)

Description

About the Book Julie Welch was the first ever female football reporter. To achieve this role at the Observer, she had to battle the National Union of Journalists nearly calling a strike when she dared to write an article as a mere secretary (despite allowing men who weren’t journalists to write for the same pages); an entire room of men falling silent to listen to her give her first football report over the phone, before pronouncing it passable, and many other battles in-between. Julie’s personal journey will provide the backbone of the narrative, and she will interweave weaving the stories of many of the great women who were simultaneously climbing up the ranks, from Lynn Barber (of An Education fame) to Wendy Henry, the first woman to edit a Fleet Street newspaper, and many more, as well as several of the secretaries whom the men overlooked but who subsequently knew everything. Pioneers one and all — Book Synopsis The Fleet Street Girls is the inspiring and evocative story of the female journalists who broke down barriers in the 1970s and 1980s as women moved up the ranks in Fleet Street for the first time. When Julie Welch called in her first ever football report at the Observer, an entire room of men fell silent. Heart in her mouth, Julie waited for the voice on the other end of the line to declare it passable. She’d done it. She was the first ever female football reporter. In The Fleet Street Girls, Julie looks back at the steps that led to that moment, from the National Union of Journalists nearly calling a strike when she dared to write an article as a mere secretary (despite allowing men who weren’t journalists to write for the same pages), and many other battles in between. Julie also shines a light on the other trail-blazing women who were climbing the ladder against all odds, from Lynn Barber (of An Education fame) to Wendy Holden, a war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, and many more, as well as some of the secretaries whom the men overlooked but who actually knew everything. Pioneers one and all. The Fleet Street Girls is a fascinating story of the hopes and despairs, triumphs and tribulations of a group of women in the glitzy heyday of journalism, where they could be interviewing Elton John one moment and ducking flying bullets or fighting off the sex pests the next. At a time when Fleet Street was the biggest, cosiest all-male club you can imagine, and the interests of half the human race were consigned to ‘The Women’s Page’ in the paper, we follow Julie and her contemporaries through dramas, excitement and sheer fun in their battle to make sure women’s voices were heard. Review Quotes A celebration of Fleet Street, that unstoppable, life-consuming news factory, which, with the subterranean rumble of its printing presses and the clamour of its many pubs … Welch captures the thrill and camaraderie among the dystopian clutter of the newsroom … Humorous nostalgia is intercut with pungent reminders, however, of the sexist culture then prevalent in newspapers–Ann Kennedy Smith, TLS Entertaining … Fleet Street Girls is full of gorgeous details about the newsroom paraphernalia of old. The overflowing ashtrays and huge typewriters on which copy was bashed out in carbon triplicate before being stuffed into tubes and sent to the machine room via overhead wires. The vicious metal spike on which unwanted copy was stabbed to death–THE HERALD (Glasgow) Eye-opening … Welch’s book is imbued with nostalgia for a time in her life that was, while difficult, also fun. The Fleet Street Girls is as much an obituary for the glory days of printas it is a story of pioneering women … Welch writes with style, and her journey to acceptance in a man’s world makes for fascinating reading–Lucy Knight, THE SUNDAY TIMES Fleet Street Girls recounts the stories of the trailblazing women journalists of the 1970s and 1980s, whose fight to be taken seriously by the then all-male Fleet Street club both thrilled and nearly killed them … eye-opening and highly enjoyable … the stories are wittily told, if sometimes mouth-claspingly horrifying … I found this story of women kicking dusty, idiotic old prejudices to one side (while getting the better of the tweedy old fools that perpetuated them) as cheering as it was galvanising–Lucy Davies, DAILY TELEGRAPH The Fleet Street Girls is both a witty love letter to a vanished era when typewriters clacked long into the night and the filing of copy was punctuated by reviving trips to El Vino’s wine bar, and an honest picture of an era when women writers struggled to be taken seriously–Sarah Hughes, THE OBSERVER A funny and revealing look at the trail-blazing women – including the author – who stormed the citadels of journalistic male chauvinism in the Sixties and Seventies–CHOICE magazine Welsh’s long-awaited book covers not only her time as the first lady of football for The Observer but also tells the story of other female Fleet Street pioneers–i paper Brilliant-