Paul knew he wanted to be a journalist before he left Oxford. He had been bored studying law but hadn’t had the confidence, back then, to change course. Studying law didn’t, however, stop him writing. He contributed to every Oxford magazine he could: Parsons Pleasure and Mesopotamia, the satirical ones he and Richard Ingrams produced; Cherwell and Isis, the long-established Oxford University magazines.

Fortunately, his father knew some major players in publishing, and after leaving Oxford he moved to Glasgow to join the staff of one of Scotland’s largest circulation newspapers. He spent the rest of his life working for a variety of national newspaper and magazine titles, was named twice as the Journalist of the Year, by What the Papers Say; Campaigning Journalist of the Year in the British press Awards, and Campaigning Journalist of the Decade in the year 2000.

1961 – 1963 trainee and reporter

Based in Glasgow, the Scottish Daily Record had a significant working-class readership and a print run of half a million copies a day.

1964 reporter

The Sun that Paul joined was not the paper we know as the Sun today, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. This Sun was the renamed and about to be relaunched Daily Herald

1964 – 1967 reporter

First appearing in 1961, the Sunday Telegraph was the sister paper to the Daily Telegraph which was founded in 1855 and has always been, and continues to be, a conservative paper.

1967 – 2004 contributor and columnist

Private Eye, founded in 1961 by Paul's friends from school, is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, recognised for its criticism of public figures and institutions.

1968 – 2004 writer and editor

The weekly Socialist Worker began publication in the heady political atmosphere of the summer of 1968. Paul was a regular writer and columnist from its founding until his death in 2004

1975-1988 contributor

A political and cultural weekly magazine founded in 1913 by the Fabians and Beatrice and Sidney Webb.

1979 – 1993 columnist

A national daily tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers, which is owned by parent company Reach plc.

1984-2004 contributor

A literary magazine published semi-monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.

1993 – 2004 columnist 

A daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London.