For his fifth general election book, Nicholas Jones presents a personal A-Z of election highlights and insights from fifty years of political reporting. Jones was a parliamentary and political reporter for The Times in the late 1960s and joined the BBC in the mid-1970s where he was an industrial and political correspondent for thirty years. In his A-Z he draws on his experiences of reporting a dozen general elections. He offers a selection of untold stories and commentaries on political intrigues and changing political fortunes, from the Wilson and Callaghan era, through the Thatcher decade, the Premierships of John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and on to the unprecedented post-war coalition government led by David Cameron. From election battle buses to shadowy world of election fixers, from the pitfalls of campaigning to the highs and lows of an election results night, Jones reflects on fifty years of political unpredictability and the love-hate relationship between politicians and the media. Such has been the speculation in the lead-up to the 2015 general election (and the prospect of political fragmentation and another hung Parliament) that Jones A-Z will offer a welcome perspective on momentous elections of the past, as witnessed during a lifetime of political reporting. Nick's previous election books: Election 92, Campaign 1997, Campaign 2001 and Campaign 2010; other titles include Soundbites and Spin Doctors, Sultans of Spin and Trading Information: Leaks, Lies and Tip-offs
About the Author: Nicholas Jones is an author and political commentator. He was a BBC industrial and political correspondent for thirty years and has written extensively on the relationship between politicians and the news media. Jones is a regular commentator to debates on issues concerning politics and the media and he takes a close interest in issues affecting the standards and practice of journalism. Jones began his career as a journalist in 1960, and after working on local evening newspapers in Portsmouth and Oxford, he became a parliamentary and political reporter for The Times in 1968 and joined the BBC in 1972, as a news producer at Radio Leicester and was later a national radio reporter, before being promoted to correspondent. In 1986 Jones was named Industrial Reporter of the Year by the Industrial Society for his reporting of the 1984-85 miners strike for BBC Radio News. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wolverhampton in 2005 and appointed an honorary visiting professor at the Cardiff School of Journalism in 2011. His books include Strikes and the Media (1986), Soundbites and Spin Doctors (1995), Sultans of Spin (1999), Trading Information: Leaks, Lies and Tip-offs (2006) and The Lost Tribe: Whatever Happened to Fleet Streets Industrial Correspondents (2011). His four books on general elections: Election 92, Campaign 1997, Campaign 2001 and Campaign 2010: The Making of the Prime Minister.