Education
Townsend attended Harrow County School for Boys (which became Harrow High School in 1975) and the London College of Printing.
Townsend attended Harrow County School for Boys (which became Harrow High School in 1975) and the London College of Printing.
He gained his first job as a journalist in 1979, working on Caravan magazine, then was popular music correspondent at Today. In 1987, Townsend became a freelance reporter, but in 1994 was appointed showbusiness editor of The Mail on Sunday"s You magazine, then in 1999 was appointed editor of Oklahoma!. During his tenure, he persuaded Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey to pose with chocolate bars in their wedding photos, as part of a promotion.
In 2001, he was appointed editor of the Sunday Express.
In 2006, Townsend had a cameo role in the television series Hustle in which he, as editor of the Sunday Express, bought an exposé story from some con men regarding the unscrupulous editor of a rival (fictional) Sunday newspaper. In 2007, Townsend published The Father I Had, an autobiographical account of his relationship with his father, who had bipolar disorder.
Townsend married Jane O"Gorman in 1989. Townsend was the ghost writer of Express owner Richard Desmond"s autobiography, The Real Deal: The Autobiography of Britain"s Most Controversial Media Mogul.