Author Guide · Investigative Journalism
Books Written by
In July 2009 Nick Davies reported in The Guardian that journalists at the News of the World had routinely hacked into private mobile phones, and that the police had done too little about it. Two years later his story about the voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler led, within days, to the closure of the paper. Davies, born in 1953, had by then spent three decades as a reporter, much of it freelance for The Guardian from his home in Sussex, writing about a wrongful conviction in Texas, a killer nurse in Lincolnshire, child poverty and the failings of his own trade. This guide covers his six key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 key books · 1991–2014 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Nick Davies has written six books. The best known are Hack Attack (2014), his account of the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British papers, and Flat Earth News (2008), which coined “churnalism” for news recycled from press releases and agency copy. Start with Hack Attack: it is the story he broke himself, told from the inside, and it became the 2025 ITV drama The Hack.
Where to Start with Nick Davies
If you want the story he is famous for
→ Hack Attack (2014) — the phone-hacking investigation, from the inside.
If you want to know how news really gets made
→ Flat Earth News (2008) — his case against his own profession.
If you want true crime
→ Murder on Ward Four (1993) — the Beverley Allitt case at Grantham Hospital.
If you want Britain’s poor, reported up close
→ Dark Heart (1997).
6 Nick Davies Books, in Order
White Lies
After a white schoolgirl is murdered at a high school in Conroe, Texas, suspicion falls on Clarence Brandley, a Black janitor, who is convicted and sentenced to death. Davies spent a year in the United States on the case and follows the fight to clear Brandley, which exposes the racism and corruption of the town. Against him stand a Texas Ranger, a district attorney and a mayor; on his side a former priest turned investigator, a private detective and a few lawyers.
Murder on Ward Four
The case of Beverley Allitt, the nurse who attacked children on the children’s ward of Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire in 1991. It begins with the sudden collapse of a seven-week-old boy and follows the families, the hospital staff and the detective who hunted the killer. Written with the cooperation of key people in the case, it also sets out the weaknesses in the National Health Service that let the attacks go on.
Dark Heart
At a fairground in Nottingham Davies meets two boys of about twelve who are part of a network of children selling sex on the city’s streets. Following them leads him into crack houses, brothels, street gangs and drug dealing, and to his argument about the poverty at the hidden centre of British society. Peregrine Worsthorne in the New Statesman called it a most powerful and harrowing piece of investigative journalism.
The School Report
Grew out of an 18-month investigation for The Guardian, published in three batches between September 1999 and July 2000. Davies looks at the state school system: what he calls an undeclared policy to kill off comprehensive schools, Ofsted’s account of school failure, the claims of the chief inspector Chris Woodhead, underfunding, truancy and exam cheating, and what Britain could learn from Dutch schools.
Flat Earth News
A study of British news from the 1980s on, built on research by Cardiff University into 2,000 stories in The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent: only 12 per cent were provably based on material the papers’ own reporters had generated. Davies blames commercial pressure, fewer reporters and more copy, and calls the result “churnalism”. The London Review of Books called it a genuinely important book; Kamal Ahmed of The Observer, whom it criticised, accused him of scurrilous journalism.
Hack Attack
Davies’s own account of the phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch’s News International, which he began writing in July 2011, from his first reports in 2009 to the closure of the News of the World. It ends with an appendix listing 41 private investigators used by British newspapers. Peter Oborne in The Daily Telegraph called him “Britain’s greatest investigative journalist”. It was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and shortlisted for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, and Jack Thorne adapted it for ITV as The Hack (2025), with David Tennant as Davies.
In What Order to Read Nick Davies
Each book stands alone, so read by subject. The first four are about other people’s institutions: a Texas court, an NHS hospital, the police and social services in Britain’s poorest areas, the school system. The last two turn on his own trade.
Flat Earth News and Hack Attack work best as a pair, and in that order. The first describes the commercial pressures on British newspapers in general and names the News of the World’s use of private investigators; the second tells what happened when he followed that thread.
A reading path
1. Hack Attack (2014)
2. Flat Earth News (2008)
3. Dark Heart (1997)
4. Murder on Ward Four (1993)
5. White Lies (1991)
The years · 1953–2025
Quick facts about Nick Davies
- Known for
- Nick Davies is known for exposing phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World for The Guardian, the reporting that led to the paper’s closure in 2011.
- 1953
- Born on 28 March
- 1979
- News reporter at The Guardian
- 1999
- First winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize
- 2014
- Hack Attack
- 2025
- ITV drama The Hack, with David Tennant as Davies
- Born
- 28 March 1953
- Education
- Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, 1974
- Worked
- The Guardian from 1979, freelance for the paper from 1989; also The Observer, World in Action and Dispatches
- Honours
- Martha Gellhorn Prize (1999, its first winner); Reporter of the Year, British Press Awards (2000); Paul Foot Award (2011)
- Coined
- “Churnalism”, in Flat Earth News (2008)
- On screen
- Played by David Tennant in The Hack (ITV, 2025)
The red mark is 2014: Hack Attack, his account of the phone-hacking scandal.
How Nick Davies Writes: Following One Thread
Davies works on long single investigations rather than daily news. The School Report came out of 18 months of reporting for The Guardian; for White Lies he spent a year in Texas. His books usually start from one case or one person, such as a baby collapsing on a hospital ward or two boys at a Nottingham fairground, and widen out from there to the institution behind them.
He uses numbers as evidence, not decoration. Flat Earth News rests on Cardiff University’s study of 2,000 stories, and its argument that only 12 per cent were provably based on reporters’ own material. Hack Attack ends with an appendix listing 41 private investigators used by British papers.
He writes in the first person when he was part of the story, as in Hack Attack, where his sources, his editors and his mistakes are all on the page. Reviewers have praised the reporting and questioned the conclusions: Mary Riddell found Flat Earth News unduly pessimistic, and several critics of Hack Attack objected to its epilogue on neo-liberalism and its subtitle.
Frequently asked questions about Nick Davies’s books
How many books has Nick Davies written?
Six: White Lies (1991), Murder on Ward Four (1993), Dark Heart (1997), The School Report (2000), Flat Earth News (2008) and Hack Attack (2014). All six are on this page.
What are Nick Davies’s books in order?
White Lies (1991), Murder on Ward Four (1993), Dark Heart (1997), The School Report (2000), Flat Earth News (2008) and Hack Attack (2014).
Where should I start with Nick Davies?
Hack Attack (2014), the story of the phone-hacking investigation he led himself. If you would rather understand the newspaper industry first, read Flat Earth News (2008) before it.
What is Nick Davies’s most famous book?
Hack Attack (2014), about the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News International. Flat Earth News (2008) is the other one most often cited, mainly for the word “churnalism”.
Is The Hack based on Hack Attack?
Yes. Jack Thorne adapted Hack Attack into The Hack, a seven-part ITV drama released on 24 September 2025, with David Tennant as Davies, Toby Jones as the Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Robert Carlyle as a detective investigating the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan. A film directed by George Clooney was announced in 2014 but never made; Davies said in 2019 that no one wanted to invest in a project that would alienate Murdoch.
What is churnalism?
Davies’s word, in Flat Earth News (2008), for news that is recycled from press releases and agency copy instead of being reported and checked. The Cardiff University research behind the book found that only 12 per cent of stories in four quality papers were provably based on material their own reporters had generated.
What did The Guardian correct about the Milly Dowler story?
On 4 July 2011 The Guardian reported that the News of the World had hacked Milly Dowler’s phone in 2002 and deleted voicemails, giving her family false hope that she was alive. On 12 December 2011, after new police evidence, it corrected the story to say the paper was unlikely to have been responsible for the deletion that caused the false hope. The hacking itself was not disputed.
What prizes has Nick Davies won?
The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 1999 (he was its first winner), Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2000, and the Paul Foot Award in 2011 for his phone-hacking reporting. Hack Attack was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and shortlisted for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year.
Is Nick Davies still alive?
Yes. He was born on 28 March 1953 and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford.
Did Nick Davies work on WikiLeaks?
Yes. In 2010 he won Julian Assange’s confidence and brokered The Guardian’s access to the WikiLeaks material, then tried to hold the arrangement together as Assange added other partners.
Footnotes
- Nick Davies — Wikipedia
- Hack Attack — Wikipedia
- Flat Earth News (book) — Wikipedia
- The Hack — Wikipedia
- Nick Davies: Churnalism has taken the place of what we should be doing — Press Gazette, 2008
- Guardian retracts July claim on Milly Dowler’s voicemails — iMediaEthics, 2011
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Our job as journalists is to tell the truth, but repeatedly we fail.”
— Nick Davies, Press Gazette (2008), adapted from Flat Earth News
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations