Sunburn: The unofficial history of the Sun newspaper in 99 headlines

by James Felton

'An astonishing piece of work' James O'Brien'This book was a delight. Funny, scathing and witty' Ian DuntYou should buy this book if : a) you dislike the Sun, but have never actually read it to know why and/or b) you're still not sure how we got into this mess.Using his famed on-the-nose commentary, Twitter legend James Felton has dissected 99 of the most outlandish stories the Sun (for a long time the biggest-selling British newspaper) has run since it became a tabloid in 1969, hoping to answer once and for all whether the press has reflected - or manipulated - the British people over the last 50 years. joke-riddled and illustrated analyses of the Sun's most infamous stories about celebrities, war, royals, crime, the LGBTQ+ community, migrants, the EU, politics, bacon sandwiches and page 3.Not A blindfold. We suggest reading through your fingers instead.'James Felton makes me laugh like a bellend' Robert Webb'James Felton makes me laugh every day' Marina Hyde'James never fails to make me laugh and then think, then laugh some more' Dermot O'Leary

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Humor, Politics, Audiobook, Comedy, Journalism

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am one of those people that have always referred to this rag as The Scum. I have never bought a copy of The Scum, and that isn’t just something that I’m proud about: I’m smug about it too!

James Felton is actually a really funny man that manages to insert some serious belly laughs into a book that also contains some of the most depressing factual content that I have ever read.

[lia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Informative but dull. A struggle to get through. Not for me, I suppose.

[Ewan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Sun is a shitrag paper that reports shit stories and stirs up nonsensical opinion. James Felton does a good job of showcasing that in the 99 examples he pulls out, but eventually his jokes (like the headlines he ridicules) become more or less the same. Felton is an exemplary Twitter comedian, who has a strong way with words, but when filtered into the book format, he doesn't survive the transition all that well. Some funny lines here or there, but not enough to bring much humour to a 300 page book.

[Pamela (Here to Read Books and Chew Gum) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I wanted to love Sunburn: The Unofficial History of the Sun Newspaper in 99 Headlines, and at times I genuinely did, it was the kind of book that overstayed its welcome by the halfway mark.

I love James Felton as a comedian. He's witty, political, and irreverent. For the first quarter of the book or so I was absolutely engrossed and his comedic stylings translated well. He managed to insert humour into topics that would usually make me shake my head in disappointment and disbelief. But as the book went on, that humour started to feel a bit samey, and I found myself getting bored which was a real shame.

Thankfully, the structure of Sunburn is such that you can read it in small sittings. It took me a month to finish reading it because it ended up being my waiting room read on my phone's Kindle app - I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and read the whole thing. It provided the perfect bite-sized distraction for when I didn't have the time to fully immerse myself in something.

Sunburn is interesting, surprisingly informative, and definitely not short on humour. It's a fun, easy read, but be prepared for the humour to wear thin after a while in long sittings.

[Scarlett Brunstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a funny one to rate. When I studied journalism at uni, The Sun was the marker by which we judged morality. Our ethics seminars would regularly involve the tutor asking people if they’d take huge amounts of money for a job ‘even if it meant working for The Sun.’

I come from a family of Liverpudlians so obviously anyone I see reading it is immediately dead to me, but I wanted to read this to try and understand maybe some of what makes people pick it up. I actually understand it even less now - but it’s a fascinating (horrifying) study into journalistic standards and how far they can go. I really hope James Felton is okay after having to do all the research!!!

[M.G. Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't understand why anyone would still be reading The Sun after Hillsborough, the hacking scandal, and so many other things. Now I've finished reading this, I understand even less why anyone would read it.

JFT97

Oh and don't read The Sun.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does the scum have the pull to swing elections? Is it just a shit paper with extremely questionable morals that has a habit of backing those that adjust look certain to win?

What do you think?

James Felton spent a damn long time going through back issues of the rag (so you don't have to), looking to categorise their treatments of various topics such as crime, prejudice etc to see what lessons can be learned and to generally poke fun at them.

[Alex Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing and depressing in equal measure.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

How utterly depressing. Deliberately so, with this subject matter it couldn’t be anything else.

The Scum once splashed a story about about the organisation I worked for over its front page. No Scum reporter got in touch for a statement let alone a fact check. I was the single press officer on duty so I know that for certain. What I also remember with horror was the deluge of calls that splash spawned. I spent the day pointing out the factual errors but nobody gave a crap, the damage was already done. Anyway, I’ve harboured a loathing for it ever since, knowing first hand their shady ways.

The story about my employer at least , whilst inaccurate, wasn’t misogynistic, xenophobic or otherwise bigoted about some minority group, unlike much of the Scum’s story content this book highlights from through the years. It’s quite frightening the influence this paper has, although as the author frequently points out, the paper is also fond of a blatant and shameless change of tune when it’s misread the mood of its readers.

I follow the author on twitter so I know I like his writing style and humour. I bought the audiobook which was narrated by Alexi Sayle. That took a bit of getting used to, the ranting prose delivered by a shouty narrator was a bit much as I walked my dog around the woods at 8am, and it did make me all sorts of angry - given the state the UK’s in mid-pandemic and post Brexit mode, it wasn’t one to soothe the listener if that’s your thing. But definitely enlightening.

[D.K. Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember now how I came across James Felton originally. I think it was finding his book "52 Times Britain was a Bellend", which I loved, reviewed, and then found him on Twitter. Since then, I've just come to think of Felton as being one of the best people to follow on Twitter if you like 'in-your-face' tweets calling out the wrongs and incompetencies of the government and various political commentators, all with excellent (but caustic) humour.

I know that the job of comedians is to make jokes seem effortless when, in reality, they've put in huge amount of time and effort to craft their lines, but I don't know if Felton does the same. For sure though, he seems able to pump out a shedload of tweets every day which unfailingly hit the mark. It is rare one doesn't raise a laugh, along with a sage nodding of the head in agreement. I'm in awe; I could spend all day trying to emulate even one of his tweets.

"52 Times" was a book which was absolutely on point. Felton demonstrated that the British, on the whole, are really a nation of euphemistic bankers. It seems hardly surprising then, seeing as we've been utter plonkers for centuries, that we would eventually come up with a paper (eventually papers, plural) that would feed new, up-and-coming right-handers and comfort the older ones. It took an Australian, Rupert Murdoch, to make the transformation happen, but transform it did and The Sun - as we know and hate it today - came into being.

This is another of those books where I seriously don't know how the author doesn't have his ass sued off by the objects of his wrath. I assume that the publisher's lawyers have been all over this book to make sure there's nothing that can prove costly, but that only tells me how bizarre the law is that someone can say something innocuous in a tweet and be threatened with legal action but Felton can write an entire book attacking and name-calling the various editors and writers for The Sun and not face any problems at all.

I'm glad he has though. Through 99 headlines, Felton takes us through the worst of The Sun's moments (though I'm pretty certain he had to cherry-pick given that I don't think I've ever seen a decent headline from this shit rag in nearly fifty years of walking past it on newspaper stands and ignoring it); and does so, so that we don't have to read it ourselves. He should receive a commendation for services to the British public for that.

It makes for horrendous reading. If this material had been presented in a serious manner via a history book, it would be enough to make you pack your bags, leave the country and let the people burn. I grew up in a coal-mining town in the 80s and lived most of my adult life in relatively poor rural Cumbria, so it feels to me that most of the people I know and have lived with read this rag, along with other similar ones such as the Daily Fail and the late unlamented Fake News Of The World. It is easy for those who shield themselves from this rot to think that no one reads this rubbish and no one thinks like this. In my experience, they do. That's the problem.

And that is very much Felton's raison d'etre for writing the book. While showing that, despite its claims, The Sun does NOT win elections, he also argues (quite rightly) that it drip feeds odious thoughts and lies into the British psyche (and remember, historically, we don't exactly need much encouragement) turning us into shitty little conspiracy theorists. This isn't a harmless rag. This is a dangerous one.

Thankfully, I'm not packing my bags because, while Felton has done his research properly and this is as accurate as any history book would manage, he fundamentally wants to make us laugh. And laugh we do - which makes everything seem better and makes us put the suitcases down. I have deliberately written this review with a splashing of 'language' because Felton's abounds with much worse and with considerably harsher innuendos. If you find the review even the slightest bit offensive, you really do not want to read this book. If, like me, you appreciate someone calling a spade a 'fucking big shovel' when it happens to be true, then you'll love it. And, for once, you don't have to mumble an 'everyone knows The Sun is shit' response when someone says they read it but you know you haven't a clue what is in it because you never read it yourself. You can read Felton's book - covering from the very beginning in 1969 right up to present times - and know exactly what utter rot this paper vomits out on a regular basis.

It is sometimes said, at least by ardent left-wingers, that Jeremy Corbyn has proven time and again to be on the right side of history. If this is true, then The Sun is the universe balancing its karma. Over the last fifty years, it seems almost everything it has every stood for - from promoting under-eighteen-year-olds to flash their breasts (now consider paedophilia), to vilifying gays in numerous ways, to campaigning to have all the junior doctors sacked - has proven to be embarrassingly, gut-wrenchingly wrong. You would think the publishers would actively be trying to remove all sources from public records and brush over history with fake news to make it appear they never said these things. Indeed, as Felton points out, several pages on the internet site have indeed been removed for exactly that reason.

If you've had your fill of xenophobic, Tory-loving, chest-beating British nationalists, then 'Sunburn' is definitely a perfect place to go to remind yourself how mind-numbingly stupid these idiots are. But then go on to read his '52 Times' book to remind yourself that, in harsh truth, we're all not so different ourselves.

Literally, on this morning of writing, we've woken up to the news that Captain Sir Tom Moore has died. Quite rightly, the nation is mourning this lovely old man who inspired us back when lockdowns were a shock but made us rally together. On Radio Four this morning, one commentator said how Sir Tom had given us 'a story we could believe in' when we needed one to raise our spirits. They were absolutely right - but it is our nation's nature to believe in stories and that's not good. We reinvented ourselves in the Renaissance period (what Peter Frankopan says is really a 'naissance') and told stories we absolutely believed in that we have this heritage stemming back to ancient Greece and Rome - which is why serious Oxbridge scholars continue to spending years waxing lyrical about 'myths' otherwise known as silly children's stories, rather than study something sensible. We told ourselves stories of our bravery in the World Wars against the 'evil Germans' to hide our own 200-year imperial shame. And we continue to sell ourselves the myth that we are better than others (Europeans especially), that foreigners are just wrong - period - and that we can do whatever the fuck we like because we're British and we are always, always right.

And that's why James Felton's books should be required reading. Someone really has to redress the balance. It might as well be someone who can make you laugh along the way.

[Andrew Markos · Rating 1 out of 5]

My god what a slog. I bought this book thinking it would be a fun way to read about the modern history of Britain through the lens of the Sun. How wrong I was.

The only fun thing about this book was the occasional moment when a Sun headline would actually hit the mark and make you laugh. James Felton’s attempts at humour were anything but, instead subjecting the reader to tedious simile after tedious simile. Every single story seemed to be followed up with a "which is a bit like saying enter daft joke here". Despite railing against the Sun for their childish toilet “bloke down the pub” humour, Felton essentially just puts us through a woke version of that humour.

He also condemns the paper for its use of clickbait, despite using a clickbait-style opening to one of his own sections of the book, seemingly unaware that this isn’t necessary in a book that someone is clearly already reading.

I was tempted to give this book two stars based on its excellent chapter on the exploitation of children as sex objects before the government eventually made it illegal for 16-18-year-olds to do topless modelling. This chapter was eye-opening, but unfortunately, the rest of the book was so awful I have to give it one star.

[Sara Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intensely funny book covering the Sun and it's effect on discourse. With an admittedly more left wing standpoint, it breaks down into chunks the increasingly concerning history of such a big paper and how they haven't changed. It helps make those who know to avoid the Sun but not why understand why it's so polarising. With the way it is structured it's best for a more casual reading style, each headline is often self isolated meaning it can be put down at any time without the read on desire. Approaching it with this mindset will allow to get the best from the book, with the added side effect of not getting accustom and desensitised to the toxic sludge slopped onto it's pages without a care in the world for social ramifications. Pick up and at if you need a laugh and a underlying feeling of dread.

[Tomas Bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pozoruhodný žáner: prierez toho najhoršieho, čo kedy napísal britský The Sun, teda letom svetom rasizmu, homofóbie, xenofóbie, eurofóbie a ničenia náhodných ľudských životov skrátka len preto, že môžme. Celé veľmi vtipné a zároveň vcelku dosť smutné, nedá sa prečítať naraz, ale dokonalé čítanie na WC a/alebo na zaspávanie.

Obľúbené citáty:

- Clickbait is the most annoying thing about being online, apart from all the people.

- Are they (The Sun) more like a sewage factory pumping out human waste, polluting an otherwise basically clean sea, or like a mirror placed above a toilet, reflecting shit?

- In 1982 the Argentine military junta launched an invasion of the islands, believing that Britain wouldn’t defend them using force. They’d underestimated Britain – a nation that (if you merely glance in one of our museums) would rather die a thousand deaths than give stuff back to its owners

- The ‘Sun Says’ section of the paper is the editorial or leader: it states an opinion on the news as opposed to neutrally reporting the facts like the rest of the paper also doesn’t do.

- ‘Had to make a few changes to the job lately.’ ‘Oh yeah, why’s that?’ ‘Oh, because the new Sexual Offences Act reclassified what I was doing as child pornography.’ ‘Right.’ ‘Can’t do anything these days

- War: bad for people who don’t want to die, good for knocking a penny off a gallon at Esso.

- ... a paediatrician’s house getting vandalised because readers couldn’t differentiate between the words paediatrician and paedophile. Why read the whole word when it’s smashing time?

[Sarah AF · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's pretty well established that The Sun is what the term 'gutter press' was invented for (you don't become termed 'The Scum' by accident), but I hadn't realised quite the depths to which it was willing to go or the relentless bigotry of it's agenda over the years. It speaks volumes that it's the most sold newspaper in this country right now. This book was as enjoyable as it was eye-opening, with Felton's easy prose making for an engaging and humorous read that had me reading out line after line. The hilarity throughout definitely took the edge off what is actually a pretty depressing read.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pushed to decide if this book deserves 3, 4 or 5 stars as it is basically highlighting the tripe that passes for journalism at Britain's bestselling paper. It is by turn despressing and infuriating, but then it's meant to be. Some people might think calling the Sun a fascist rag is coming on too strong, but how can you defend describing rape as 'sexy' or 'steamy', publishing topless pics of 16yo girls, calling homosexuals 'poofs' or continually vilfying anyone not born on 'Britain's sovereign's soil!'? God, I feel stained just repeating that shite.

So, kudos to James Felton for donning his wellies to wade through such muck, and to Alexei Sayle who was an inspired choice for the audiobook narrator.

[Chris Billing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to be taken in small doses.
‘The Sun’ is a filthy shitrag.
Being exposed to so much of the bile and vitriol that it vomits into the world in the short time it took to read the book is not recommended. It was difficult to keep going, but keep going you must.
I thought that the humour in the writing would mitigate the effect of learning about the machinations of a publication that exists to make money by telling lies and trashing innocent people. The humour is there, and it’s good (often very funny) but it doesn’t offer protection against the tidal wave of bigotry and filth that it describes. Full marks to Mr Felton for trying.
It’s a good book! Funny in many places, and interesting and informative.
It’s like taking unpleasant medicine; it does you good, but at the same time it’s nasty.
Read the book. Read a bit and then come up for air. Go for a walk, play a game with your children. Remember that there is joy in the world before returning to the cesspit of ‘The Sun’.
After that, come back and read some more. This is a book that must be read and widely shared.
When you see someone that you love or care for with a copy of ‘The Sun’ tucked under their arm, pity them, and hand them a copy of this book.

[Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alexei Sayle reads the audiobook version of this book and yes it is as funny as that sounds. It's a good job that this book was written with a comedic tone as otherwise it contains a depressing snapshot of the gutter press over the years. Has to be read, or heard, to be believed.

[Lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I knocked off half because it got a bit tiring at the end but nothing to do with the author. I just can't read negative books for too long. Overall entertaining and frustrating. Definitely worth reading.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

More thought provoking than I expected and gave me more reasons to resist the temptation to click onto the enticing, but ridiculous headlines of The Sun. it also reminded me and caused me to think - why was page 3 ever a thing?!?

[Claire (Book Blog Bird) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so funny and oh my god The Scum is such a horrific shitrag

[Paul Middle Name Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

99 reasons to not buy the S*n

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful (and thankfully funny) commentary from Felton got me through the minefield of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and general garbage that The Sun has spewed out since old mate Murdoch took over.

Hostel book #4, trip book #7

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't let a copy of The Scum into my house, and this book serves as a reminder as to why.

[Vel Veeter]

This is a book by the mostly online comedian James Felton (I know him solely through Twitter) that details in categorical breakdown the awfulness of the British tabloid The Sun. The book uses 99 headlines and details from other articles to tell the history of the paper owned by Rupert Murdoch. Felton breaks down this history into thematic categories like “celebrity” “racism” and “misogyny” and through light and really funny analysis spells out not only the offense, but also the effect and impact of the coverage. .

In terms of who this book is for, well it gets a little more complicated. For me, an American who has very little exposure to the Sun, it’s a great look into a cultural artifact (or even touchstone) that not only do I have no real interaction with except by reference. Felton’s analysis is funny and cutting, but even by his own admission, it’s relatively surface-level. There is certainly a more intensive and incisive broader cultural analysis version of this book that Felton admits is out there, but that he’s not here to give it to you.

So for me, the casual reader (with much of that cultural analysis background Felton is not diving into in my grad school days), it’s a funny, if depressing set of analytical providing me the necessary cultural context for say, when a novel involved British tabloids, to better understand the reference points.

There’s not really a US equivalent, not one that is nation-wide, and even this week’s excoriating of the NY Post reminds us that that paper is local mostly.

[Mickey Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite an odd experience to be reminded of the shamelessness of this newspaper and those responsible for its production. The continued existence of Piers Morgan, Kelvin MacKenzie and others as pundits and public figures is bewildering given their involvement in "Eastbenders" and "Hillsborough:the truth!" You would hope that if these reptiles had any morals they would just spend the rest of their days in atonement for their sins.
Some of the humour is a bit Twittery but it has more righteous anger than sneering, which is not always easy given the moral and intellectual vacuum in its subject matter. It is a very useful survey of the last 50 years of British history and essential reading for students of the media and contemporary history/popular culture. It also helps to explain why we are sat here on Plague Island in 2021 with Brexit happening as if it's all fairly normal and a supine media allows BJ to chuckle and dissemble his way through selected media appearances while the nation falls apart.
Recommended.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My God, The Sun will print some shit! If a paper prints lies on the front page, the retraction should also be on the front page, in the same size font!

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't that I didn't like this book, I really enjoyed the first few chapters but it quickly became very repetitive. I think that was always going to be the case with a book focused on 99 headlines, especially one that groups the headlines together into topic areas such as crime, misogyny and politics. As a general rule of thumb excluding the first few years of the Sun newspaper, it has roughly followed the same opinion lines so once you've read a couple of the headline breakdowns on one of the topics then you have reached the depth that it could possibly go to. Additionally I felt there were a lot of times when the same things were actually said again a few pages later.

Some of the content was enjoyable, It was interesting to read the examination of the extent of the Sun's power that it professes to have and the conclusion that it has none despite politicians such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson sidling up to it in the hope of positive press. I think it was a fair conclusion that rather than harnessing any power the Sun merely attempts to follow the views of its readers or the current opinion polls and it will regularly change its viewpoint to reflect this. However, whilst this was the main thread of the book, I think the more important point to take from this book (but a point that wasn't heavily focused on) is around the impact that any newspaper has upon the public's opinion and whilst they may not influence voting in the way they profess to, they do spend the year writing articles that impact public opinion and therefore they should be held more accountable than they currently are for the lies that they spread and impact that this has.

Finally the general tone of the book irritated me, I don't read the Sun and I'm very left-leaning and even I found the tone to be constantly sanctimonious and at times smug. I also felt there was a general feeling that the average Sun reader was a bit dim which I think is unfair, I think the book neglects to acknowledge that most people reading the Sun are fully aware that it is a step up from a comic book of made-up stories but they read it because it is on the whole more light-hearted than the broadsheets but the downside is that it is full of lies which get accepted by some people as truth and the Sun needs to be held accountable for that. To sum the book up in a few words I would say it's a book to read in short-sittings about the examination of power that the Sun does not actually have and about how the newspaper regularly prints twists on the truth and complete lies which they are regularly forced to retract but they do so in tiny print deep within the paper so that no one reads it. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a bit deeper and included some analysis as to how they could be held to account for their morally bankrupt journalistic standards more than they currently are.

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off well but eventually the poor editing, unnecessary and pointless swearing and his determination to make a point blinding him to the truth got to me. It was when he said that the General Belgrano was sunk INSIDE the exclusion zone that I started to be more critical. Interestingly, I did learn something I didn’t know, which was that the exclusion zone only applied to non-military vessels, making it irrelevant. I learned this from various internet sources, not James Felton, though. It did rather spoil a vivid memory from Spitting Image, where a cabinet minister held up a diagram of a chad-shaped exclusion zone to explain to the rest of the cabinet that the General Belgrano ‘was inside the exclusion zone’.

Then when he got to the research on whether or not The Sun influenced voting, he didn’t mention the study showing its influence on the Brexit vote. Thanks to the Liverpool boycott, there was strong evidence to suggest that that referendum WAS influenced by The Sun. This study was widely reported in August 2019 by The Guardian, the FT, The Independent and more.

Of course, this doesn’t make me like or approve of The Sun, but neither does it make me want to recommend this book to anyone. Which is a shame, as the idea was a good one, and a lot of the research did seem sound.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sun, Rupert Murdoch’s red top, with its now defunct Sunday companion, the News of the World, has been embroiled in scandal ever since Murdoch took it over.
James Felton has undertaken the punishing task of studying its content, attitudes and political influence and has produced this analysis which is both extremely funny and alarming.

It is notorious for its punning headlines, often excessively insensitive, its enthusiasm for photographs of semi-naked women, originally of schoolgirls, war, reintroduction of hanging, xenophobia, homophobia and reduction of serious events to entertainment.

Although it reflects and encourages right wing opinion it still manages to be on the winning side at general elections, giving it influence in Number 10, even in Blair’s Labour government, and supporting different parties in its Scottish and English editions.

Ultimately it presents a portrait of the UK at odds with the country as it is, in lived experience and history while claiming to be “patriotic” above all.

In my opinion it is not a publication beneficial to the UK, or which informs its readership, but, again, its intention is primarily to entertain and make money.

[Chris Fowler · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the kind of liberal who has only ever seen The Sun sticking out of a builder's back pocket, this didn't seem an enticing read, but it seemed that if anyone could stick it to Britain's sleaziest tabloid James Felton, known for a nice line in acerbic ripostes on Twitter, would be the one to do it.
It turns out The Sun is unassailable. Looking at their misogyny, prejudice and vendettas, Felton amusingly and rightly calls out their double standards and endless lies.
The problem is that we already know papers like the Sun, the Express and the Daily Mail lie all the time. It's a barn door of a target that anyone could hit 20 years ago, and did.
That doesn't mean the subject should be dismissed. James Graham's play 'Ink' showed how Murdoch's empire should be examined, but Felton is out to make Sun-style jokes, and his long-form writing is far weaker than his Twitter feed. I love a good humour book, but what was needed for this subject was a more properly journalistic study of their horrific psychology, not a toilet book.