Penny Junor Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Penny Junor
Penelope Jane Junor was born in Leatherhead, Surrey on October 6, 1949 and is an English author and journalist.

She was educated at Benenden School in Kent. Her dad was Sir John Junor, the newspaper editor, and Roderick (her brother) to whom she was very close throughout his life, was a lead writer for The Daily Telegraph and was a speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher.

Her dad was a domineering and powerful character, with whom Penny had a tough relationship with, mainly because of how he treated her wonderful mom.

Penny spent the first nine years of her life living on Lord Beaverbrook’s estate, who had persuaded her dad to give up ambitions to be a Liberal MP for journalism instead. The house came with a price and her dad was constantly under Beaverbrook’s beck and call.

In order to get out from under, they moved to Charlwood, also located in Surrey, however the job still dominated family life and their house was often filled with the good, the great, and politicians. It was quite a roll call, looking back, however at the time she believed them to be deadly dull.

While she was studying history at St. Andrews University, she left in order to get married during her second year in 1970. She married former restaurateur James Leith (who is the brother of Prue), and they have four kids together, the oldest of which is Sam Leith, a journalist.

She started out in television in 1981, presenting this program called “Collecting Now” when she was working as a reporter. The next year she presented “4 what it’s worth”, which was an award winning consumer program that aired on Channel 4 in which she worked as a presenter and investigative reporter. The program aired until 1989. In addition she was also co-presenter on “The Afternoon Show” with Barbara Dickinson (a singer) on BBC1 from 1984 until 1985.

She was the main presenter from 1988 until 1997 of “Travel Show Guides” on BBC2 along with Matthew Collins (who did all the traveling as ‘The Special Assignments Man’) and John Kettley presented the weather for the holiday destination for the forthcoming week or so. The guides were concise and brief films that enabled holidaymakers to learn about whichever resort was highlighted before they actually traveled there.

She has written numerous books on the British royal family. These include Charles, Prince of Wales, Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The books on the Waleses “alienated” both of them and Penny considers the experience to be absolute worst of her entire career.

Penny has also written books on Richard Burton, Pattie Boyd, John Major, and Margaret Thatcher. She’s also helped Sir Cliff Richard in writing his bestselling book “My Life, My Way”, which sold more than a quarter million copies. She even helped Shaun Ellis write “The Man Who Lives With Wolves”.

Penny has worked for the Evening Standard and her column for Private Eye lasted for five years.

“Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2007. Rock music’s most famous muse tells her incredible story. Pattie Boyd, the former wife of both Eric Clapton and George Harrison, breaks a forty year silence finally and tells the tale about how she found herself being bound to two of the most promiscuous and addictive musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most legendary muse in rock and roll’s history.

The woman that inspired Clapton’s anthem “Layla” and Harrison’s tune “Something”, Pattie Boyd has penned a book which is raw and rich, heartbreaking and funny, and fully honest.

“The Man Who Lives With Wolves” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2009. What could possibly compel a man to place himself right in constant danger in order to become the member of a wolf pack? To put his head into a carcass alongside the wolves’ gnashing teeth, just to eat with them? To hunt, play, and spar with them, suffering bites and bruises? To learn their language in order for his howl to be indistinguishable from theirs? To give up a normal life of family and relationships in order for him to devote himself totally to the protection of these wild animals?

Shaun Ellis, in this book, reveals exactly how his life changed irrevocably the very first time he laid eyes on a wolf. In exhilarating prose, he takes us from his upbringing in the wilds of Norfolk, England, to survival training with British Army Special Forces and to the Nez Perce Indian lands in Idaho, where he ran with a wolf pack for almost two years for the first time.

Offering this extraordinary glimpse into the lives of these misunderstood and threatened creatures, he shares how he ate raw kill (and not much else) rarely washed himself, and just in plain water. He learned how to bury his face into the carcasses of their prey, communicated to the pack by his body language and howls, which over time grew to be seemingly identical to theirs, and is observed from his unique vantage point to how wolves give birth to and raise their young, and enforce order among the pack.

Shaun, after spending years in the wild, was barely able to recognize the feral face which was staring back at him from the mirror. And in this book, we learn the life of a fascinating and rare man that abandoned civilization yet never lost touch with his own humanity.

“My Life, My Way” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2011. Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is the biggest selling artist of all time, selling more than 250 million records around the world since bursting on the music scene in 1958. However how exactly did he keep his appeal all this time? In a world fueled by sex, drink, and drugs, he’s perennially attractive without any of the things which keep other singers’ profiles so high.

Now, writing with the help of acclaimed journalist and biographer, Penny Junor, Cliff is able to speak freely and frankly about what it’s really like to be Cliff. Hugely talented, inspirational, a much beloved household name, his tale is rather extraordinary.