God Bless Mrs Mcginty!: My Life and the Sunday Post

2016 | Biography

Entertaining, lively, informative and direct, this memoir by Bill Anderson about his life and times as the editor of one of the UK's most successful Sunday newspapers chronicles a special view of Scotland, and The Sunday Post itself, from the late 1930s to the 1980s. The memoir was written in 1982 while Anderson was recovering from a near-fatal car accident. The manuscript remained undiscovered until 2014 when Bill's wife Maggie came across when she was clearing out her desk - 'not before time' he would probably have said. The manuscript was entitled 'Who the Hell is Bill Anderson?' Here it is, and it is a fascinating account of childhood in working-class Scotland in the 1930s and 40s, of the wee boy who would grow up to edit the best-read newspaper in the world, The Sunday Post. The autobiography tells of Bill's broad experience from his working-class roots, through childhood, later aboard the MV Marilyn Abbott, then his medical training at Glasgow University via Hartwood Hospital and his Army days, together with the adventures that only an Hon Man could encounter that gave him a fairly unique insight and perspective.As editor of The Sunday Post he was passionate, tenacious, campaigning and demanding.

In 1990 Bill left the editor's chair to become managing editor, and the following year he won a Scottish Press Award for his lifetime's work. Though a traditional newspaperman, he was immediately aware of the impact that the internet would have on journalism, and in the early 1990s he set up Scotland Online, a joint venture between DC Thomson and Scottish Telecom. In 1991 he became the first Scottish member of the Press Complaints Commission. He was appointed CBE in the same year.

Bill Anderson (Author)