Camera Girl

Doreen Spooner was a pioneer. The story of Fleet Street's first female photographer is a remarkable journey of glamour, heartbreak and loss. This is a book about adventure, success and a working mum's determination to make it in a man's world.

Starting as a photographer in the 1940s, Doreen ended up in the male-dominated world of Fleet Street in the early sixties, when a personal crisis forced her to take her camera back out to work. This memoir recounts, in her own words, her struggles with marital heartbreak, money worries, bereavement and working-mother guilt while she fought to establish herself in a cut-throat newspaper industry. Leaving her children and domestic dramas at the front door each day, Doreen entered a world of political scandals, glamorous superstars and cultural sensations - shooting stars by day, cooking fish fingers by night.

It's an uplifting and touching story, and a hugely enjoyable portrait of postwar Britain. Front-page scoops, royal indiscretions, stroppy celebrities - they're all part of Doreen's unforgettable and beautifully photographed journey.