Sir Harold Evans - The Editor of all Times

The book Good Times, Bad Times was becoming a big seller when I attended a media workshop in 1983. The course director at the workshop narrated fascinating anecdotes about the author of the book, the legendary newspaper editor Harold Evans. I never thought I would one day get to know him well enough to call him Harry.

- Jacob Mathew

Harry had good times most of his life, and the best of times as editor of The Northern Echo and The Sunday Times, two British papers where he excelled in investigative journalism in the sixties and seventies.

He became editor of The Times, London, in 1981. The media baron Rupert Murdoch had bought it, as well as The Sunday Times and The Scotsman, from the Thomson family. The owner and the editor shared only one thing in common, a passion for newspapers. As narrated in the book, they fought over editorial independence, and Harry resigned the same year. The book dripped with emotion, but 25 years later, Harry wrote: “I am often asked my feelings about Murdoch today. My concerns are professional rather than personal.”

As a newspaperman, Harry had fire in his belly like the steam engines that his father drove in Manchester. He was only 16 when he began writing for a weekly newspaper in Lancashire. After customary military service and a college degree, he returned to journalism demob-happy at Manchester Evening News, perfecting the art of writing, editing and design.

At The Northern Echo, he demonstrated the power of investigative journalism and became an ardent campaigner for public good. In 1963, he ran a series of articles on the need to make cervical cancer test compulsory for all women. Then he wrote letters to the MPs, forcing the government to introduce compulsory testing.