The best supplement ever? Newspaper men put pen to paper

Observer series stalwarts John Dowling, Philip Elms and Ken McEwan all began careers in the Bexhill Observer offices during the 1960s.

Three Men and a Quote, a collaborative three-way autobiography, follows their route from a building they describe as 'cramped', through nearly 150 years of collective experience.

The authors also offer honest and sometimes poignant accounts of how their careers came to an abrupt halt when the recession hit last year, two to early retirement and one to redundancy.

"We wanted to create something rather more interesting and challenging than just three hacks writing up their memoirs," they said.

"In many ways we are three very different personalities.

"Yet we realised we had these extraordinary links that made a single project so compelling.

"We think the result is informative, dramatic, funny and sad. Just like a local newspaper should be, of course."

Dowling, 65, life and soul of the Bexhill Observer for two generations, recalls fires, prison riots and the controversial sacking of a council chief executive - all set against an active community role.

Elms, 61, became the longest serving sports editor of modern times at the Hastings Observer before switching to the design and production side of the Hastings and Bexhill titles and walking the legal minefield (all this while pursuing an active career in amateur theatre).

McEwan, a sports editor with the Hastings Observer and the Eastbourne Gazette and Herald, recalls his first scoop (the story of a runaway horse) and pays tribute to a vast array of sporting heroes whose exploits he has covered, while also revealing the sporting cheats he refused to let off the hook.

Family life, hobbies and interests, triumphs and tragedies unfold amid the unceasing demand to deliver weekly news to the breakfast table.

Visit www.ragdollmediauk.com for information or to buy the book for 9.99. The title is also being stocked at Hastings and Eastbourne branches of Waterstone's.