Rebekah Brooks 'worst henchperson of all time'

Ex-News International chief Rebekah Brooks has taken quite a kicking over the phone hacking affair. Now the latest issue of The Word magazine has chosen her as "the worst henchperson of all time", ahead of Alastair Campbell, the Ogrons from Dr. Who, Donald Rumsfeld and Big Vern from Viz.



Joint winners of the The Word's best henchmen of all time are Snoop and Chris Partlow from The Wire.

Pearson: 'Being a columnist is a recipe for lunacy'

Telegraph journalist and author Allison Pearson reflects on the life of the newspaper columnist in the latest issue of The Word magazine.

Pearson, an ex-Daily Mail columnist, says: "As I get older, I don't really like opinions. I always think that any sane person has about five opinions a year, and at the Mail I was supposed to have five a week. It is a recipe for lunacy."

She adds: "There's a danger that you become this moony cannibal talking to your friends and thinking, 'Oh, can you just give me an item.'

"Also, if you've lived quite a life and made more than your fair share of mistakes, as I have, the whole sitting in judgement approach to other people increasingly fills me with discomfort."

The Word has a good website but does not put its magazine content online.