27 Facts About Roy Greenslade

Roy Greenslade was born on 31 December 1946 and is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism.

Roy Greenslade worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards.

Under a pseudonym, Greenslade wrote for the Sinn Fein newspaper An Phoblacht during the late 1980s whilst working on Fleet Street.

Roy Greenslade's father was an insurance clerk, and his mother was a book-keeper.

Roy Greenslade started work at the Barking and Dagenham Advertiser aged 17, and delivered the newspaper to newsagents to supplement his low wages.

Roy Greenslade was an early member of the Communist Party of Britain.

In 1969, Roy Greenslade entered Fleet Street as a news sub-editor on The Sun, which had just been acquired by Rupert Murdoch.

Roy Greenslade had a brief spell with the Daily Mirror in 1972 before returning to The Sun as deputy chief sub-editor, first with the news desk and later in the features department.

Roy Greenslade left The Sun in 1974 to write his first book and to take a degree in politics at the University of Sussex.

Roy Greenslade worked his way through university with part-time sub-editing jobs at the Brighton Argus, BBC Radio Brighton, the Sunday Mirror and Reveille.

Roy Greenslade was appointed features editor of the Daily Star.

Roy Greenslade was involved in the move from Fleet Street to Wapping.

Roy Greenslade was briefly consultant editor to both The Sunday Times and Today newspapers.

From 1992 until 2005, Roy Greenslade was media commentator for The Guardian.

Roy Greenslade spent three months with The Daily Telegraph in a similar capacity before returning to The Guardian to launch a daily media blog, which ended in 2018.

Roy Greenslade wrote a weekly media column for the Evening Standard.

Roy Greenslade presented BBC Radio 4's Mediumwave and in 1996 was the launch presenter of Britain Talks Back on Granada Talk TV.

Roy Greenslade is on the board of an academic quarterly, the British Journalism Review, and was a trustee of the media ethics charity, MediaWise.

Roy Greenslade stepped down in 2018, becoming an Honorary Visiting Professor until 2021.

Roy Greenslade has been credited with coining the term The Hierarchy of Death as well as writing extensively on the subject.

Roy Greenslade is the author of three books, Goodbye to the Working Class, Maxwell's Fall and Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda.

Roy Greenslade was interviewed by National Life Stories in 2007 for the "Oral History of the British Press" collection held by the British Library.

Roy Greenslade wrote in a 2021 British Journalism Review article that it was revealed by Nick Davies, a Guardian colleague, with his consent.

When Roy Greenslade reviewed Davies's book on his blog in 2008, he did not deny his contributions to An Phoblacht.

Roy Greenslade has had a house in County Donegal for many years, and a close personal friend is Pat Doherty, who from 1988 until 2009 was vice president of Sinn Fein, and who has been publicly named as a former member of the IRA Army Council.

Roy Greenslade stood surety in 2013 for IRA member John Downey, one of the suspects in the 1982 bombing of Hyde Park which killed four soldiers.

Roy Greenslade is married to Noreen Taylor, a former feature writer for the Daily Mirror, who is the mother of the actress Natascha McElhone.