The Legend That Was Paul Foot

The annual Paul Foot Awards for Campaigning and Investigative Journalism are a highlight of the journalistic year: they are given to some of the best investigative journalists in the UK. But for those who don’t remember the man himself – who was Paul Foot?

We are delighted to welcome Margaret Renn, the author of a new book Paul Foot: a Life in Politics, and Christopher Hird, who knew the man himself, to talk about one of the UK’s best known journalists, campaigners and political radicals.

Margaret’s book will be on sale through the conference bookshop, run by our friends from The Word Bookshop.

Also, don’t miss this year’s Paul Foot Award nominees speaking at #CIJSummer 2024:

Rosamund Urwin (Horizon/ Post Office Scandal and reporting #MeToo. Both – 4 July), Richard Brooks (Horizon/ Post Office Scandal – 4 July) and Antonia Cundy (Investigating Opus Dei – 3 July).

This talk is part of #CIJSummer Investigative Journalism Conference 2024. Book your place here.

Margaret Renn

Margaret Renn is a writer and journalist. She worked alongside the investigative journalist Paul Foot on Socialist Worker and then at the Daily Mirror from the early ‘80s until 1993. She has since worked at the BBC and produced radio documentaries for Radio 4 and the World Service, including programs on Lockerbie and on corruption.

Christopher Hird

Christopher Hird founded Dartmouth Films in 2008, to pioneer new ways of funding, producing and distributing documentaries. A former investment analyst in the City, he worked as a journalist on the Economist, Daily Mail, New Statesman and Sunday Times (as the editor of Insight), before becoming a television reporter and producer.

Published: 21 May 2024

3 July 2024

Paul Foot: A Journalist’s Life [R]

As her biography of Paul Foot is launched, Margaret Renn discusses his legacy as an investigative journalist. His notable columns appeared in Private Eye, Socialist Worker, the Guardian, and the London Review of Books.