Exposé is a triumph for first-time novelist Paul Ilett.
Welcome to the world of news media, particularly the murky world of the tabloid: celebrity reporting, the relentless stalking of VIPS, undermining of governments and exposing political hypocrisy are all just a part of a another hum-drum day at the office activity.
This is a world where the saucy details of personalities, peers and people of note are exposed for the world’s entertainment. Sometimes you don’t even have to be famous to get your unwelcome share of the limelight.
Paul Ilett’s brand new book Exposé whips and slams newsprint media with a savvy, electric and clever exposé of the shady world of selling tomorrow’s fish and chip paper. With the Leveson enquiry still biting the industry, and the crash of the News Of The World still fresh in our memories, Exposé is a well timed reminder that all eyes are on the tabloids that trade in smut, in order to shift copies. We’ve been promised reform and self-regulation, but is that what we’re getting or is it just business as usual?
The Daily Ear, thinly veiled for what reads like a real life title, is under attack when openly gay, hugely popular actor Adam Jaymes (think a British Jonathan Groff mixed with Matt Bomer), wages war against the infamous tabloid. He’s got a personal vendetta against the columnists, editors and owners of the rag – and he’s treating them to their own medicine, with a number of well-orchestrated, scandalous exposés of various members of the Daily Ear’s editorial team and the Harvey News Empire, the owners of the paper.
Brilliantly observed (the author is a former journalist), and devilishly demanding, Ilett’s debut is a f**king riot, can’t-pit-it-downer, that the huge media empires should be worried about.
