John Parker

Posted: November 3, 2026

FORMER editor of the Sunday Mirror and best-selling author, JOHN PARKER, died on August 31 [2026], aged 88.

John’s career in journalism began on the Kettering Evening Telegraph where he was the first to report on controversial plans to revamp Kettering town centre in the 1960s. During his two-year spell as editor in the early 1970s, the paper hit a 50,000 circulation milestone for the only time in its history.

John later worked for Life magazine. He quit Fleet Street at the age of 50 and went on to write more than 40 books – some on military and investigative topics, including “The Gurkhas”, and “SBS: The Inside Story of the Special Boat Service”. He also wrote best-selling biographies of Prince Philip, the Princess Royal, Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas and Elvis Presley.