Marchamont Nedham - born and brought up in in Burford, has had a bad press for almost 400 years. Critics called him a triple turncooat. Now, at last, England's first great journalist sets the record straight.
 
Nobody was safe from the pen of the 17th century's most notorious newspaperman. In turn, he attacked King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II - and, in turn, each of them gave him a job.
 
Marchament Nedham - Republican and Toyalist, Roundhead and Cavalier, doctor and lawyer -was the leading reporter of the English civil way.
 
Hated, loathed and despised by his enemies, more than once he was jailed and faced execution. In an era notorious forc religious bigotry, he was married to a puritan and a Catholic. At the same time, Marchamont Nedham's memoirs reveal the full story of how he survived and prospered.
 
Nigel Hastilow a journalist by trade, was Editor of ‘The Birmingham Post’ in the 1990s and has worked for the Institute of Directors, the Institute of Chartered Accountants.