For her third offering, film reviewer and novelist Sandra Hall turns to biography. Her subject is ostensibly Ezra Norton, one of the pioneers of Australian tabloid newspapers, but almost a third of this fascinating book wisely concentrates on John Norton, Ezra’s domineering father whose flamboyant life was documented in Cyril Pearl’s Wild Men of Sydney. In contrast to the well publicised escapades of his father, and the staple diet of lurid gossip and scandal in their own newspapers (Truth and the Daily Mirror), Norton junior carefully avoided public scrutiny. He kept no diaries or letters, so the author has chosen to tell his life by scrutinising the newspapers he published, and those of his competitors. Tabloid Man is more than just a biography, it is also a history of the tabloid press from the 1880s until Norton’s death in 1966. It is rich with anecdotes, colourful characters as diverse as Rosaleen Norton and Eric Baume, and the stories behind the scandals, including the fist fight between Ezra Norton and Frank Packer. It also offers insights into the dynastic nature of newspaper publishing, and offers pertinent comments on tabloid journalism itself.

Graeme Moore is an online bookseller and freelance writer

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