Fans say his larger than life personality and tabloid instincts make him the best tabloid editor of his generation. Fleet Street’s high flyer has a tendency to play for high stakes. Mr Morgan was made editor of the News of the World in 1994 at the tender age of 28.

Still only 36, he has run the Mirror for five years and seems to have stemmed its long-term circulation decline. Sales are holding steady at 2.2m. The consensus is that he has been a strong editor, bringing his own brand of irreverent populism to a paper that was previously beaten into submission by the Sun. But his reputation has been tainted by errors in judgement and he is still under investigation by the department of trade and industry over trading in shares tipped by the paper’s now defunct City Slickers column. Piers lives in Balham with his family.
March 2008