He gained his first job as a journalist in 1979,[2] working on Caravan magazine, then was pop music correspondent at Today.
During his tenure, he persuaded Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey to pose with chocolate bars in their wedding photos, as part of a promotion.
[2] Townsend left his job in early August 2018 during editorial changes at the Express Newspapers group which was initiated in February 2018.
[1] Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror) bought the titles owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell at that time.
[6][7] Lynn Barber, in her Sunday Times review wrote that "the bulk of this memoir, about getting on, is a ripping yarn, fluently and wittily told".