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I wrote a memoir called The Bootle Boy. It tells the story of my life, and Rupert Murdoch is one of its central characters.

Murdoch has attracted admirers and fierce critics in equal measure. I worked with him for fifty years, so I had to find a way to tell my story honestly—without being accused either of biting the hand that fed me or of seeming like a brainwashed Murdoch cultist.

The result is my own account: personal, candid and, I hope, fair. Whether you admire Rupert Murdoch, dislike him, or simply want to understand the man behind the headlines, you may find something that surprises you.

As I write in my book:“He could be hands-off or autocratic, charming or irascible, forgiving or fierce, and sometimes just a comprehensive pain.”

Below are excerpts from The Bootle Boy. And you can buy a copy here https://mybook.to/TheBootleBoy

Now and then, he would seem vulnerable. We were about to close the $3 billion acquisition of the Triangle publishing group, which included TV Guide, with a weekly circulation of almost 17 million. It was the biggest publishing deal in US history and a high-stress moment. We were waiting in a motel near Triangle’s HQ in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Lawyers and finance people were working the phones in an ill-lit conference room, organising the wiring of cash to the seller’s banks. Rupert was standing in the lobby with me and a couple of others, talking about what we would do when we walked into Triangle’s huge offices to take over the business. Here was the tough and invincible mogul on the brink of another mega deal. But then I saw a red smear on his fingers, staining the white handkerchief he had taken from the breast pocket of his jacket. He had picked at the cuticles of his fingernails until they were bleeding.

He could be in pain when things went wrong. During a company crisis, he had to sell a stable of magazines.

He organised a dinner for the departing executives, about 50 of them, and we sat in his office early that evening discussing what he would say to them. He wanted to be sure to have a grateful remark for every individual in the room. He put down his pen at last and looked silently across his office, in the direction of a wall of television screens.

‘I feel like I’ve let them all down,’ he said.

But he could also be tough and terrifying towards the people working for him.

I became good at providing therapy to executives and editors who suddenly felt out in the cold. Sophisticated people would come to me, wounded because ‘Rupert hasn’t called me for more than a month.’ My response was always the same: ‘Lucky you.’ He was like a visiting comet and the mysterious astronomy of Rupert made it impossible to know when he would appear and how long he would stay. In meetings, he went easy on junior people; he must have seen how terrified some were. But, with senior people who displeased him, he could be savage. I consoled over drinks more than one tearful editor. He would often ask, when one more beaten executive walked limply from his office: ’Did go too far?’ Usually the answer was yes.” Copyright © Les Hinton 2026

problem solving steps

problem solving steps

John's character is Devlin St. John, a Salem water sanitation engineer... with a sewage plant named after him.

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!

This is what Roerich's paintings look like:

recognize that a massive portion of the infrastructure and power consumption of the internet is devoted purely to advertising, to tracking everyone who uses the internet for purposes of advertising to them, for websites of businesses that have no reason to exist outside the context of global capital, for web services that exist only to lock youth out of using the internet (and to force adults to prove they're not kids in order to use the internet by collecting personally identifiable information), and a bunch of other bullshit that just does not need to exist!

With the new Harry Potter series she will be making a reported $20 million per-season renewal + other performance dependent royalties. She has been open across multiple interviews regarding her intentions to use said funds to push forth even more trans targeted legislation in the years to come.

This isn’t a “she gets paid no matter what” situation. The more eyeballs on this show the more money she has to actively harm vulnerable communities. By engaging with it you are directly supporting this and otherwise making a conscious choice to consume HP over doing the literal very least possible to not destroy the lives of trans people across the world.

If my stating the objective facts above upsets you then feel free to unfriend and move along. Your nostalgia-goggles feelings for a tired, problematic franchise mean nothing to me compared to the welfare of my trans friends and loved ones."

If you care more about badly written children's books and imaginary wizards more than you do about real people in the real world do it far the fuck away from me.

Don't try to be in my life.