BBC political editor Andrew Marr is to host the British Press Awards.
Marr
began his career on The Scotsman and went on to work for The Economist,
the Express and the Observer before becoming editor of The Independent,
from which he was sacked, then reinstated as editor-in-chief.
In
his recent book, My Trade, he describes his career in these terms: “On
the way I’ve been a near-alcoholic in Scotland, the disloyal ‘friend’
of
ministers and prime ministers, engaged in savage and surreal boardroom
rows and learned what to do when the TV camera lights go out and a
piercing whistle blows the newsreader’s question out of an oversized
ear. I’ve worked with heroes and liars, haggled with proprietors and
learned many of the dirty tricks of one of the dirtiest trades in the
land.”
All of which should stand him in good stead to keep the baying crowd under control at the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday 15 March.
He is also a previous British Press Awards winner, taking the columnist of the year award a decade ago.
Up for grabs will be awards in 28 categories, for which a record number of 871 entries have been received.
For
the first time, feature writer of the year is the category with the
biggest number of entries, just overtaking columnist of the year and
closely followed by specialist writer of the year and sports writer of
the year.
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