Tell-all tale of a Times hack (From Penarth Times)

Tell-all tale of a Times hack

A FORMER Penarth Times reporter has written a paperback book recounting the incidents and accidents of a 60-year career in journalism and public relations.

Don't Hold The Front Page, by Bob Skinner will be published on September 16, with a launch party at the Washington Gallery on publication day.

And for each book sold, a donation is being made to faceup, the Penarth-based head and neck cancer charity, of which Bob is a trustee and a founder.

Bob, who lives in Windsor Court on Penarth's esplanade, started out as a 16-year-old cub reporter on the Penarth Times in 1942.

At the time the paper was run from Times House on the corner of Plassey Street and Arcot Street, and owned by the three Pickford brothers.

On his first day on the paper Bob tells how he was sent to the police court to report on local inquests.

He writes: "I found that, despite its air - veneer - of elegance and gentility, Penarth could match a seedy city when it came to sex. Of the four inquests, two were abortion cases. I sat, scribbling away, hardly believing my ears."

At the time Bob was the only journalist on the paper, covering everything from book reviews to sport and crime reports.

During the Second World War Bob reported Luftwaffe attacks on Penarth, before being drafted himself.

Bob's life changed dramatically on a return visit to the Penarth Times on leave as a young soldier - he met his future wife, who was his successor as the paper's reporter, Miss Rosemary Preece.

Bob went on to work for the South Wales Argus after the war before pursuing a career in public relations with Caerphilly Urban District Council and later Cardiff City Council and South Glamorgan County Council.

He was also publicity and marketing officer for Cardiff/Wales airport for 10 years.