Contributor(s): Lionel Barber | Join us for this event with former editor of the Financial Times Lionel Barber at which he will discuss his new book, The Powerful and the Damned: life behind the headlines in financial times.

Lionel Barber spent over a decade rubbing shoulders with the global giants of business, finance and politics. Recounting conversations, late-night dinners and unexpected comic nuggets from those who make the news, The Powerful and the Damned is a portrait of the rich, famous, powerful and occasionally damned. In his first authored book, Barber offers unflinching pen portraits of the world’s leading characters, from Trump, Merkel and Draghi, to Prince Andrew, Mohammed Bin Salman and Dominic Cummings. In parallel, Barber provides a personal account of how he transformed the FT into a multi-channel global news organisation with a strong of international awards and groundbreaking reporting. This created a monumental shift for the whole news media landscape.

You can order the book, The Powerful and the Damned: life behind the headlines in financial times (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

Meet our speaker and chair

Lionel Barber (@LionelBarber) was editor of the Financial Times from 2005 until January 2020, widely credited with transforming the FT from a newspaper publisher into a multi-channel global news organisation. During his editorship, the FT passed the milestone of 1million paying readers, winning many international awards and accolades for its journalism.

Charlie Beckett (@CharlieBeckett) is the founding director of Polis, the think-tank for research and debate around international journalism and society in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE.

More about this event

The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. We are ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in our field (2021 QS World University Rankings).

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBarber