Jeremy Paxman Audiobooks

Newsnight's great inquisitor turns to coal and country in Black Gold

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.6/5 average

917 listener ratings

Who is Jeremy Paxman?

Jeremy Paxman, born in Leeds in 1950, is an English journalist, author and former broadcaster who for a generation defined the political interview in Britain. Educated at Malvern College and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he edited the student newspaper Varsity, he joined the BBC in 1972 and worked through Tonight, Panorama, newsreading on the Six O’Clock News and Breakfast Time before the role that made him: presenter of Newsnight from 1989 to 2014.

His interviewing style became a fixture of national life – forthright to admirers, aggressive and condescending to critics, unmistakable to everyone – and politicians simply had to survive it. He also presented University Challenge from its 1994 revival until 2023, stepping down after announcing in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Through it all he has written steadily, and the books carry the same stamp as the broadcasting.

Jeremy Paxman in audiobooks

Our catalogue features Black Gold, and for UK listeners of a certain vintage the author needs no introduction – which is part of the pleasure. A broadcaster who spent a quarter of a century demanding straight answers on Newsnight brings particular equipment to the page: scepticism, precision and a flat refusal to be boring.

Audio suits him for an obvious reason: this is a man Britain is used to hearing. Black Gold offers the longer form – the room to pursue a subject well past the point where an interview would have been cut off – and listeners who relished the interrogations will recognise the mind at work immediately.