Stephen McGinty – författare

The life of the spiritual pugilist and eminent Scottish Cardinal Thomas Winning, leader of Scotland’s Catholics until his death in June 2001.Stephen McGinty tells for the first time the full life story of Cardinal Thomas Winning, arguably the most controversial and pugnacious archbishop in recent British history.Cardinal Winning’s father was an unemployed miner in Lanarkshire, whose illegitimate birth remained a family secret Winning took to his grave. Raised in a crucible of anti-Catholicism, Winning – as priest, bishop and cardinal – set about moving the Catholic Church, by sheer force of his own personality, out of the ghetto and into the mainstream. His stated ambition was to build the City of God on the streets of Glasgow, but his pastoral plan for spiritual renewal fell on somewhat stony ground – partly because of problems with his priests, partly through his own impatience. As Archbishop of Glasgow, he almost bankrupted his diocese with a debt of £10 million, yet still found the funds to offer cash to dissuade women from having an abortion.Cardinal Winning never ceased to be an outspoken and unashamed champion of traditional Catholic values, fiercely anti-abortion and anti-homosexual acts. Too conservative for the Conservative Party yet too socialist for New Labour, he picked fights with both, while his sympathy for the poor remained constant.Before his death in 2001, Cardinal Winning gave dozens of hours of exclusive interviews to the author, who has also enjoyed the assistance of Winning’s family, friends and colleagues. In exploring the complicated and conflicting character of the cardinal, Stephen McGinty reveals the vulnerable, prejudiced and quietly spiritual man beneath the red hat and the new Scotland he helped to forge.

The Dive is a thrilling narrative nonfiction in the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13. They were out of their depth, out of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean’s surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue.In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson’s mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed almost half a mile below.The crippled sub and its crew were trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They had just two days’ worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three days’ time.The Dive is brilliantly researched by veteran journalist Stephen McGinty. Stephen adeptly reconstructs the race against time as Britain, America and Canada pooled their resources into a ‘Brotherhood of the Sea’ dedicated to stopping the ocean depths claiming two of their own. Based on previously undisclosed records, maritime logbooks, and exclusive interviews with all the key participants, The Dive takes the reader on an emotional and thrilling ride from the depths of defeat to a glimpse of the sun-dappled surface.

The Dive is a thrilling narrative nonfiction in the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13. They were out of their depth, out of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean’s surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue.In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson’s mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed almost half a mile below.The crippled sub and its crew were trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They had just two days’ worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three days’ time.The Dive is brilliantly researched by veteran journalist Stephen McGinty. Stephen adeptly reconstructs the race against time as Britain, America and Canada pooled their resources into a ‘Brotherhood of the Sea’ dedicated to stopping the ocean depths claiming two of their own. Based on previously undisclosed records, maritime logbooks, and exclusive interviews with all the key participants, The Dive takes the reader on an emotional and thrilling ride from the depths of defeat to a glimpse of the sun-dappled surface.

The Dive is a thrilling narrative nonfiction in the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13.They were out of their depth, out of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean’s surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue.In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson’s mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed almost half a mile below.The crippled sub and its crew were trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They had just two days’ worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three days’ time.The Dive is brilliantly researched by veteran journalist Stephen McGinty. Stephen adeptly reconstructs the race against time as Britain, America and Canada pooled their resources into a ‘Brotherhood of the Sea’ dedicated to stopping the ocean depths claiming two of their own. Based on previously undisclosed records, maritime logbooks, and exclusive interviews with all the key participants, The Dive takes the reader on an emotional and thrilling ride from the depths of defeat to a glimpse of the sun-dappled surface.

The fire was visible from seventy miles away and the heat generated was so intense that a helicopter could only circle the rig at a perimeter of one mile. On the surface of the sea, a converted fishing trawler inched as close as possible, but the paint on the vessel’s hull blistered and burnt. In the water surrounding the inferno, men’s heads could be seen bobbing like apples as their yellow hard hats melted with the heat.On 6 July 1988 a series of explosions ripped through the Piper Alpha oil platform, 110 miles north-east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. Ablaze with 226 men on board, the searing temperatures caused the platform to collapse in just two hours. Only sixty-one would survive by leaping over 100 feet into the water below.Newly updated for the thirtieth year since the tragedy, Fire in the Night by journalist Stephen McGinty tells in gripping detail the devastating story of that summer evening. Combining interviews with survivors, witness statements and transcripts from the official inquiry into the disaster, this is the moving and vivid tale of what remains the worst offshore oil-rig disaster to date.

During the Second World War, Churchill's cigar was such an important beacon of resistance that MI5, together with the nation's top scientists, tested the Prime Minister's supplies on mice rather than risk sabotage. Today Winston Churchill and his cigar remains a global icon, memorialised by a 107 foot statue of a cigar in Australia, while his cigar stubs are treasured as relics.Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with Churchill's staff, Stephen McGinty, an award-winning journalist, explores Churchill's passion for cigars and the solace they brought. He also examines Churchill’s lasting friendship with Antonio Giraudier, the Cuban businessman who for twenty years stocked Churchill's humidor, before fleeing Castro's revolution.

Publication is the coin of the realm in the academy. Careers depend upon a strong publication record, and journal editors occupy powerful positions in the publishing process. This study examines the careers of thirty-five scholarly journal editors through in-depth interviews that cover their rise to positions of influence, their views of the work of journal publishing, their assessment of the electronic revolution, and the role played by personal networks in the conduct of their duties. Along the way some controversial issues arise including journal proliferation, the padding of curriculum vitae, and the state of craftsmanship in the academy today.The interviews are analyzed against the backdrop of paradigms pioneered by two social scientists, Kurt Lewin and Lewis Coser. Their models of gatekeeping and social connections inform the analysis throughout the text. This book provides a revealing look at a crucial part of academic life.

During the Second World War, Churchill's cigar was such an important beacon of resistance that MI5, together with the nation's top scientists, tested the Prime Minister's supplies on mice rather than risk sabotage. Today Winston Churchill and his cigar remains a global icon, memorialised by a 107 foot statue of a cigar in Australia, while his cigar stubs are treasured as relics.Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with Churchill's staff, Stephen McGinty, an award-winning journalist, explores Churchill's passion for cigars and the solace they brought. He also examines Churchill’s lasting friendship with Antonio Giraudier, the Cuban businessman who for twenty years stocked Churchill's humidor, before fleeing Castro's revolution.

Publication is the coin of the realm in the academy. Careers depend upon a strong publication record, and journal editors occupy powerful positions in the publishing process. This study examines the careers of thirty-five scholarly journal editors through in-depth interviews that cover their rise to positions of influence, their views of the work of journal publishing, their assessment of the electronic revolution, and the role played by personal networks in the conduct of their duties. Along the way some controversial issues arise including journal proliferation, the padding of curriculum vitae, and the state of craftsmanship in the academy today.The interviews are analyzed against the backdrop of paradigms pioneered by two social scientists, Kurt Lewin and Lewis Coser. Their models of gatekeeping and social connections inform the analysis throughout the text. This book provides a revealing look at a crucial part of academic life.

The fire was visible from seventy miles away and the heat generated was so intense that a helicopter could only circle the rig at a perimeter of one mile. On the surface of the sea, a converted fishing trawler inched as close as possible, but the paint on the vessel’s hull blistered and burnt. In the water surrounding the inferno, men’s heads could be seen bobbing like apples as their yellow hard hats melted with the heat.On 6 July 1988 a series of explosions ripped through the Piper Alpha oil platform, 110 miles north-east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. Ablaze with 226 men on board, the searing temperatures caused the platform to collapse in just two hours. Only sixty-one would survive by leaping over 100 feet into the water below.Newly updated for the thirtieth year since the tragedy, Fire in the Night by journalist Stephen McGinty tells in gripping detail the devastating story of that summer evening. Combining interviews with survivors, witness statements and transcripts from the official inquiry into the disaster, this is the moving and vivid tale of what remains the worst offshore oil-rig disaster to date.

'A page-turner' The Spectator 'Harrowing and engrossing' Nicola Sturgeon'Incredible and powerful' The Herald 'Utterly heartbreaking' TelegraphOn 13 March 1996 a man walked into Dunblane Primary School armed with four legally owned handguns, and in less than four minutes fired 105 bullets, killing sixteen children and their Primary One teacher.The gunman was notorious among local parents, politicians and police: for years he ran a network of popular boys’ clubs and was the subject of multiple complaints and investigations, but, despite considerable evidence of troubling behaviour, he was never charged. His crime shocked the world then changed the nation – but only after an extraordinary political battle.Based on original archival research, unseen royal correspondence and exclusive interviews with parents, One Morning in March tells – for the first time – of the lead-up to that day but also the incredible and powerful true story of how, in their darkest hour, a band of parents used their grief as fuel in a fight with John Major’s Conservative government to forever ban handguns in Britain. It is a story of how Princess Diana, forbidden to comfort the parents in the immediate aftermath, urged their campaign on; of how Andy Murray, a pupil at the school, ultimately banished the shadow over his hometown by winning Wimbledon; and of how the grieving parents secured the tightest gun laws in the world.