{"product_id":"young-rupert","title":"Young Rupert","description":"\u003cb\u003eFor half a century, the Murdoch media empire and its polarising patriarch have swept across the globe, shaking up markets and democracies in their wake. But how did it all start?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn September 1953, 22-year-old Rupert Murdoch landed in Adelaide, South Australia. Fresh from Oxford with a radical reputation, the young and brash son of Sir Keith Murdoch had arrived to fulfill his father's dying wish: for Rupert to live a 'useful altruistic and full life' in the media.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor decades, Sir Keith had been a giant of the Australian press, but his final years were spent bitterly fending off rivals and would-be successors. When the dust settled on his father's estate, Rupert was left with the Adelaide-based News Ltd and its afternoon paper \u003ci\u003eThe News\u003c\/i\u003e - a minor player in a small, parochial city.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut even this inheritance was soon under siege, as the left-wing 'Boy Publisher' stared down his father's old colleagues at the city's paper of record, \u003ci\u003eThe Advertiser\u003c\/i\u003e, and a conservative establishment kept in power by a decades-old gerrymander.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLed by Rupert's friend, ally, and editor-in-chief Rohan Rivett, the fledgling Murdoch press began a seven-year campaign of circulation wars, expansion, and courtroom battles that divided the city and would lay the foundations for a global empire - if Rupert and Rohan didn't end up in custody first.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on unpublished archival material and new reportage, \u003ci\u003eYoung Rupert\u003c\/i\u003e pieces together a paper trail of succession, sedition, and power - and a fascinating time capsule of Australian media on the cusp of an extraordinary ascension.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Ruthless, ambitious, a purveyor of intrigue and scandal for whom loyalty is just a pit stop on the way to a business deal, this is the young Rupert as you've never seen him before. A riveting, rollicking tale.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-Jenny Hocking, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Palace Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'From schoolboy socialist to boy publisher to mogul on the make: \u003ci\u003eYoung Rupert\u003c\/i\u003e offers a revelatory glimpse of Murdoch becoming Murdoch.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-Jeff Sparrow, author of \u003ci\u003eCrimes Against Nature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003ci\u003eYoung Rupert\u003c\/i\u003e is a vivid, revelatory portrait of a young man in a hurry. Deeply researched and sharply written, Marsh summons a vanished era to life and chronicles the intricate manoeuvres and shifting character of a man whose whims and grudges have dominated, for better and worse, the media landscape for seventy years. This is an engrossing and insightful study of raw power, shameless politics, and the powers of the press.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-Patrick Mullins, author of \u003ci\u003eTiberius with a Telephone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Walter Marsh","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43516610412605,"sku":null,"price":35.14,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9781761380044.jpg?v=1787562842","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/young-rupert","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}