The Inside Story: A Life in Journalism

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Anthony Westell began his journalistic career on London’s Fleet
Street. In Canada, he served in the press gallery during both the
Diefenbaker–Pearson wars and the prime ministership of Pierre Trudeau.
At the height of his career on Parliament Hill, he moved down the Rideau
Canal to Carleton University where he became the director of the School
of Journalism and an associate dean of arts.

This book testifies to Westell’s abilities as a writer and
storyteller. In the latter part of the work, which should be read by all
journalists and editors, he reveals his abhorrence of “gotcha
journalism.” At one point, he writes, “The new, more interpretive
and analytical reporting I had helped to introduce in the 1960s seemed
to me ... to be degenerating into adversarial comment.” Unfortunately,
that is still the case today. The Inside Story is a must-read for
historians and political junkies.