Keith Skipper

One of Norfolk’s leading personalities has published two best-selling volumes of colourful memoirs with Thorogood. Keith Skipper’s Confessions of a Country Boy (2002) and Confessions of a Norfolk Newshound (2006) recall his rural upbringing and adventures on local newspapers. Professor Malcolm Bradbury, the force behind the world-famous School of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, said of him: “Keith delights our days and does so much for Norfolk.”

Arnold Wesker, who put the county on a world stage with his play Roots, added: “I admire the way he writes and talks and feels about Norfolk.”

Following stints at Thetford, East Dereham and Great Yarmouth, Keith moved to Norwich to specialise in sports journalism. He was Norwich City football correspondent for both the Eastern Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press in the 1970s. He joined the original staff when BBC Radio Norfolk first went on air in 1980, carving out a reputation as an outspoken defender of the Norfolk way of life. He left in 1995 to pursue a freelance career – and has been extremely busy ever since. He lead a troupe of local entertainers, The Press Gang, around village halls and theatres for 25 years before the great cultural adventure ended in the autumn of 2008 with sell-out farewell shows in the Pavilion Theatre on Cromer Pier.
Keith has written over 30 books starring his native county and produced a series of DVDs and CDs featuring memorable characters met along the way. He was founder chairman of FOND – Friends Of Norfolk Dialect – in 1999, now a flourishing organisation seeking to promote and preserve the local vernacular. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk in 2003 and awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list four years later for services to the Norfolk community.

Books by this author:

	Confessions of a Country Boy Memories of a Norfolk childhood in the 1950’s. Keith Skipper writes with an acute ear for dialogue long-remembered and an artist’s eye for a Norfolk landscape.
	Confessions of a Norfolk Newshound The sequel to Skipper’s best-selling Confessions of a country boy, this is a hugely entertaining account of his early career in journalism from 1971 to 1979.