“I’ve seen an A-list celebrity making love, been spat at, bricked, attacked and had a gun pointed at my head. I’ve been up in a helium balloon and worn a parachute, been down the deepest mine in Europe, covered some riots, avoided several petrol bombs, watched a princess break down and filmed a junkie shooting up. I’ve sat in the Prime Minister’s kitchen and had a look through his wife’s cookbooks, talked to a murderer, a cocaine-fuelled professional footballer and a dodgy copper, and discussed art with a member of the cabinet and helped look for a lost wig for the secretary state for Northern Ireland. “A missile has locked on to the helicopter I’ve been flying in, I’ve watched dead bodies being taken out of a house and told the wife of an ex-president of the USA to eff off. I’ve had a knife pressed against my throat and nearly drowned trying to swim a lake whilst under the influence. I’ve walked an elephant through the town centre, been on the lash with some popstars and passed out on the balcony of a five-star hotel. I’ve been threatened with arrest, got stuck in the mud 400ft down at the bottom of the lake in a submarine, drunk tea with Paul Gascoigne and had a documentary I worked on in Panama before nominated for a BAFTA.” These are just some of Karl Coates’ fascinating stories. A Cameraman’s Tale is a compilation of anecdotes from his life during his time spent as a TV news cameraman, both with the BBC, where he worked for four years, and Sky News, where he has worked for over 20 years. He has travelled the world, met the great and the good – including kings and queens – covered war, death and destruction and seen and experienced life like no other. Karl was at Lockerbie and he covered Princess Diana’s death. He was also in Bosnia, covering part of the war. A decade was spent covering Blair and Mandelson, and he has many stories about both – most unprintable. A Cameraman’s Tale gives a behind-the-scenes insight to the events that the general public see on the news. Karl has lived a life like no other, and his sometimes humorous and often unbelieveable stories create an unmissable collection that will be enjoyed by everyone, including fans of books similar to John Snow’s Shooting History.