The journalist who has won more awards than any other journalist in the history of British journalism, Don Hale, OBE, author of "Town Without Pity" the adaptation of which became the successful BBC film "In Denial of Murder", releases another book "Secrets of the Royal Detective", ISBN: 1904181473, published by WRITERSWORLD.
WRITERSWORLD Managing Director, Graham Cook, writes "Not only are we proud to publish Don's book but also of the fact that through the skills of our book designer, Den Robinson, we were able to load all 49 photographs in this book at twice the normal digital resolution. This is believed to be a first time anywhere for print on demand. From now on, all photographs/ illustrations in our books will will be loaded to this high resolution."
THE BOOK
This is the unique story of Manchester's first Royal Detective, James Wood, a former 'sharp shooter' in Queen Victoria's mighty Army of the Empire, who progressed through the ranks of the City Police force to become the youngest Superintendent in their history — and a highly successful 'thief taker'. For many years around the turn of the century, he also helped protect a number of prominent VIPs and several visiting members of the royal family — in particular, the Prince and Princess of Wales — during a time of political unrest and specific threats against the Monarchy from 'foreign agents & agitators'. James was also involved in a host of other memorable events relating to the development of Manchester United, the Daily Mail air race, and major social reforms. This book commemorates the 90th anniversary of his death and reveals his secret diary notes, news cuttings and personal photographs from a memorable time long forgotten.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Hale has gained an enviable reputation as one of the country's most controversial and high profile investigative journalists and human rights campaigners. He became a specialist in dealing with reports and inquiries involving true stories, true crime and potential miscarriages of justice, and has been uniquely involved in the quashing of many wrongful convictions.
The most newsworthy case was probably that of Stephen Downing, who spent twenty-seven years in jail for a murder he did not commit. The story became front-page news in nearly 30 countries worldwide at the time.
In 2002, Don was awarded an OBE for campaign journalism, and received the award from HRH Prince Charles at the behest of Prime Minster Tony Blair.
Don also wrote about the Downing campaign in his best selling book, Town Without Pity, which was short-listed for the Crime Writers, Association's Gold Dagger Award for non-fiction. An adaption of the story later became a successful BBC TV drama called 'In Denial of Murder', and was broadcast during February and March 2004. It starred Stephen Tompkinson as newspaper editor Don Hale, and attracted a nine million audience.
He has also written numerous other books, on a variety of subjects ranging from rock star Joe Cocker's autobiography and ex-footballer Peter Swan's problematic career, to Sounds of the Sixties biographies and the dramatic history of the record-breaking steam engine, Mallard.
The national record books suggest that Don has won more awards for his writing than any other journalist in British history. Some of his most notable honours include 'Journalist of the Year', and the 'International Freedom prize'.
He began his career as a professional footballer, representing Bury, Blackburn Rovers, York City and Shrewsbury Town before retiring from the game due to injury and taking up sports commentating before eventually getting involved with specialist features and hard news.
Don also worked with the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and many national newspapers, before spending more than twenty years editing a number of award winning regional newspapers. He has appeared on countless mainstream television and radio programmes and is a regular speaker at Universities and Union meetings.
He is married with two sons and two grandchildren, and lives in North Wales.
�
