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Internal correspondence relating to the Guardian city desk, February 1978 - May 1986.

Subjects covered include: arrangements for overseas visits, February 1978; budget article ideas, April 1978; mistakes and corrections, December 1978; the proposed re-launch of the 'Family Finance' section, August 1978; staffing, May 1980; article suggestions, January 1981; available copy on the AP-Dow Jones economic report, May 1983; coverage of 'new industries', September 1983; introduction of a prices page, May 1984; the launch of a property page, August 1984; request for a city photocopier, November 1984 and printing city artwork, May 1986.

Correspondents include: Ian Wright, Hamish McRae, Tom Tickell, Donald Wintersgill and Peter Rodgers.
Creator: Guardian Newspapers Limited; Editor's Office; Ian Wright

Interview with Dan van der Vat, leader writer for the Guardian. Conducted by Donald Wintersgill on 15 October 2001. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording and notes on the interview.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Track 1
00.00 Introduction
00.05 Employment at the Times and decision to leave
00.45 Declined position on news desk
01.25 Interview with Peter Preston and David McKie
01.50 Offered leader writer position about a year later
02.00 Joining The Guardian and comparison with the Times
05.50 Duties as a leader writer
08.00 Leader writers' conferences

11.10 Ethos of The Guardian
11.40 Discussion between leader writers and Peter Preston
12.30 Discussion about colleagues including Geoffrey Taylor and Peter Cole
12.30 Leader writers typically educated at Oxbridge
16.40 Graduate trainee schemes for journalists
17.15 Leader writers included Geoffrey Taylor, Chris Huhne, John Torrode, Peter Preston, David McKie, Melanie Phillips, Malcolm Dean, and Martin Kettle
19.15 Ethos of the Guardian Trust and journalists aspiring to it
19.15 Discusses journalist sympathies for extreme political groups such as the SDP

23.50 Dispute with Peter Preston about leading article on teaching Latin in schools
27.00 Disagreement with John Cole at the Observer
28.40 Efficiency of Peter Cole as Deputy Editor
29.55 Confusion about system of hierarchy at the newspaper

30.45 Discussion about position of deputy editor and those appointed to the post
32.05 Ethos of the Daily Mail with Mike Randall as Editor
36.25 Reader's Survey of The Guardian in 1980s
37.15 Letters received from readers
38.10 Research, use of cuttings and contacts for writing leaders

40.10 Turned away from leader writing after 6 years
41.40 Anonymity of leader writers
42.00 Leaders on South African Apartheid
43.10 Ethos of The Guardian and Gott's Law (Richard Gott – Features Editor)
47.05 Consistency in reporting by leader writers
49.30 Disagreement with Peter Preston about peace movement

51.05 Quality of writing by leader writers
53.00 Leader writers' favourite topics i.e. Geoffrey Taylor on nuclear power
55.30 Weakness in writing of occasional woolly pieces
56.30 New electronic system at The Guardian

Interview with Derek Brown, journalist for the Guardian. Conducted by Donald Wintersgill on 3 September 2003. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording, notes on the interview and his farewell speech recorded by Leslie Plommer on 21 February 2002.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Tracks 1-3
Test

Track 4
00.40 Before the Guardian, worked for Southport Visiter
00.40 After the first morning at the Visiter, decided he loved it and stayed for three years
02.07 Applied to the Guardian and was interviewed in the corridor
03.26 Geoffrey Taylor phoned Feb 1970 to offer the job of No. 2 in the Leeds district office working with Mike Parkin
04.45 Went to Northern Ireland as back-up when troubles began in early 1971
05.24 Began a five year stint in Ireland from August 1972
06.42 Lessons learnt from Harry Whewell
07.07 Guardian's approach to reporting Northern Ireland
08.16 Most Guardian people were pro-Irish unification
08.16 Talks about the horrors of internment
09.23 How he never met Alastair Hetherington as he had been recruited in the North
09.23 Hetherington visited Northern Ireland

14.05 No-go areas and the practice of tarring and feathering
16.52 Violence and horrid things going on in Northern Ireland
17.52 Reported to Manchester up until 1976
17.52 Relationship between the Manchester and London newsdesks
17.52 Move from Manchester to London

20.30 Guardian of the 1970s was not a serious newspaper, later gained substance and increased circulation
20.30 Changed from always reporting the Manchester cotton prices to a must-read newspaper
22.55 Summer of 1977 moved to Parliament - very constraining and clubbish after Belfast
27.50 In 1979 moves to newsdesk to work with Peter Cole - only time he worked regular hours

Track 5
01.44 Moves to features as a general writer
01.44 Features was more serious then, less concentrated on lifestyle
05.27 1983 becomes a foreign correspondent in Brussels and spent 3.5 years there.
05.27 Difficulty in understanding Eurobabble

10.27 Moves to India for 6 years - the top job in journalism
10.27 Had enormous freedom to roam and freedom from technology
14.44 Dislike of Afghanistan - barbaric but scenically beautiful
19.15 From India to Jerusalem
19.15 Disliked Israel intensely - the country's divided and unhappy

21.00 Easy place to work as a journalist but difficult to write anything which didn't produce howls of anger
22.54 Peter Preston's visit to Israel with the Guild of Newspaper Editors, in '85 or '86
22.54 On Preston's he was told he had lost his job
27.02 Preston, very typically, is still to be seen taking a huge interest in the Guardian

30.40 Summer 1996 was told his services as a foreign correspondent were not required
30.40 Recording ends abruptly

Interview with Donald Wintersgill, subeditor for the Guardian. Conducted by Leslie Plommer on 2 June 2003. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Track 1
01.10 Position at the Glasgow Evening Times and postgraduate study in journalism in America
02.10 Hired to work in Manchester, after 18 months moved to London
02.20 Interview with Eric Knotts for sub-editors position
02.40 Old fashioned nature of Manchester office and practices
06.30 Misprints in paper
07.30 Employee pay compared to other newspapers
08.50 Decision to move to London

10.00 Dichotomy at the newspaper with foreign news desk based in Manchester and home news based in London
10.00 Diffculty filling role of foreign news desk editor
11.45 Remembers Terrence Pretty, diplomatic correspondent in Bonn
13.40 Alastair Hetherington views on Vietnam war
15.00 Hetherington as editor
19.30 Backbench duties

22.50 Obituary of Evelyn Waugh
23.30 Limited resources available to the newspaper
25.00 Sale room contributions to the newspaper and negotiating rate of pay

Track 2
00.00 Peter Preston's editorship from 1975
04.40 Unrelenting work of sub-editors and air of unhappiness
06.15 Hetherington's divorce
09.00 *

Track 3
00.00 Vacancy for Labour correspondent filled by John Torrode over Bernard Ingham
02.20 Torrode's move to Daily Mail
02.45 Discussion about memorable colleagues including Jean Stead
05.15 Staff leaving including Terry Coleman and Peter Cole
06.00 Difference in employment between London and Manchester offices
06.30 Remembers Victor Jorges
08.30 Position in Syndication department from 1973
08.30 Arrival of electronic transmission resulted in material being syndicated worldwide
09.50 Teaching of journalism abroad for the Thompson Foundation

10.10 Authorship of Guardian Book of Antiques
11.45 Discussion about current books being written
13.20 Scottish readership and lack of coverage of Scottish subjects
14.40
16.00
16.45 Tim Radford moved to Science Editorship whilst Richard Gott took over Literary Editorship
17.10 Resignation of Richard Gott

Track 4
00.00 Remembers Cricket tours and refers to Frank Keating and Derek Malcolm

Track 5
00.00 Advertisement of Sotheby's reduced following article by Wintersgill
01.10 Reaction by Preston
01.30 Sotheby's reaction of articles in other publications

Track 6
00.00 Printing press in Isle of Dogs

General file concerning editorial content. Includes proposed ideas for articles, features and supplements.

Contains correspondence, memorandum and reports largely concerning: sports coverage; the property price index; the make-up of the newspaper; the British Press Awards 1985; travel pages; the property section; distribution of the Times; a profile of Armand Hammer; weekend articles; the position of the crossword; drugs in Britain; review schedules; novel serialisations; a home page; future features; recruitment editorials; a Mexico feature; editorial comparison between newspapers; editorial allocation; proposed articles; promotion; quizzes; biographies and memoirs; the Living section; the omission of world weather; April Fool's Day; New Year features; the editorial budget; new series; circulation; a book by Uri Geller; My Life in Pictures by Charlie Chaplin; layout; Sir Geoffrey Jackson; the Bonington expedition to Everest; Weidenfeld, publishers; Roy Jenkins; Averell Harriman memoirs; printing; biography of Ted Heath; Donald Wintersgill; the Observer house agreement with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ); law articles; the Sun; George Jackson interview; architectural features; advertisements; Ralph Nadar; motoring coverage; crossword compiler Ximenes.

Includes notes from editorial review meetings.

Primary correspondents include: Roger Harrison; Magnus Linklater; Donald Trelford; Nick Morrell; Ken Obank; John Nuttall-Smith; Richard Findlater.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Interview with John Palmer, journalist for the Guardian. Conducted by Donald Wintersgill in January 2010.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Track 1
00.25 Joined the Scotsman in 1961 as a member of the new London office
00.48 Expansion of financial and economic reporting and its shift into mainstream news
02.10 How he came to join the Guardian in November 1963
02.58 Richard Fry's history, personality and role as head of a team of specialist market reporters
03.51 Career of Fry's deputy, Harold Griffiths, who later progressed into the Treasury
04.46 Appointment as Guardian City Editor
07.15 Standing as a Labour candidate
08.00 The sterling crisis of July 1966 and the problems for newspapers
08.40 Suggested merger with the Times
09.20 Beginnings of the Scott Trust

11.15 Took role as Economic leader writer
12.00 Discussion of writers budgets
13.25 Alastair Hetherington's strong personality
14.40 Hella Pick's complaint against an article
16.14 Pick reporting from Chequers, the Prime Ministers country house retreat
17.12 Covering a NATO summit with Pick and Martin Walker
19.07 *

20.59 *
22.22 Anecdote about Hetherington's late appearance at his own party
24.48 Hetherington's concerns about Peter Jenkins
26.45 Memorial service for Hetherington
27.05 Remembers Bill Davis
28.00 Davis' failure to file copy for the Guardian on the disassociation of the US dollar from the gold standard

30.30 Remembers Patrick Keatley
32.12 Involvement with the far left
32.50 Retirement of Harford Thomas and appointment of Hamish McRae and Francis Cairncross
34.34 Appointment as the paper's first European Editor
36.25 Director of London Transport for a year
36.50 Return to England and the Guardian
37.25 Guardian office in Brussels
37.45 Decision to leave the Guardian and set up the think-tank, the European Policy Centre
38.25 Left the Guardian in 1997
38.45 Respect for labour correspondent John Cole

40.00 Remembers Bernadette Devlin, independent socialist MP
40.40 Lunch with Devlin and Cole
41.30 Relationship with Hetherington and Peter Preston
42.20 Hetherington's role as controller of BBC Scotland
44.20 Preston's reputation
46.20 Remembers Francis Boyd
47.12 Importance of copy-takers
48.14 *

52.00 Member of Guardian cricket club
52.30 Cricket team visit to Sri Lanka
53.00 Labour stories featured in the Guardian
54.20 Bernard Ingham's suspicions about class prejudice in the newspaper
56.15 Labour reporting offered a way into political journalism
56.44 Harold Lever MP became Jenkins' high politics source for the newspaper
58.58 Friendship with Roy Jenkins

Interview with John Ryan, journalist, later executive editor, for the Guardian. Conducted by Donald Wintersgill on 12 June 1998. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Track 1
00.22 Became sub-editor of the Guardian in 1963 at age 23
00.42 Became deputy chief sub-editor
00.46 Assistant to Alastair Hetherington
01.26 Became executive editor when Alastair Hetherington left
02.30 Left the Guardian in 1976
03.34 Returned to journalism in 1991 with Thompson Foundation, running workshops in underprivileged countries
04.02 Laurence Scott and the financial troubles of 1969
09.18 Describes terms of severance packages

11.35 Alastair Hetherington's passion to save the Guardian
12.54 Discusses Gerard Fay
13.40 Discusses Bernard Ingham
15.45 Journalist unions vs. printing unions
17.30 Describes the ethos of the paper
19.10 Finds that subeditors are mostly forgotten

23.32 Paper divided in two after the London move
24.41 Speaks about how the paper was printed
27.18 How travel between London and Manchester affected the paper

32.50 Discusses Alastair Hetherington's character
39.33 Discusses Geoffrey Taylor

40.29 Mentions Brian Jones, who replaced John Putz
41.46 How the characters of those involved with the Guardian aided it
46.19 Relationship between Alastair Hetherington and Harold Wilson
49.33 Alastair Hetherington's hobbies

52.35 Refers to Iain Macleod's death
55.14 Contrast between Alastair Hetherington and Peter Preston

Memoir of Donald Wintersgill's career at the Guardian. He describes the calm and polite atmosphere of the Manchester office, and how staff were allocated a desk for life. He also describes the "elitist ethic", particularly surrounding the writing of editorial pieces. Goes on to mention the public-school atmosphere of the Observer. He puts spelling errors in the Guardian down to under-staffing.

Finally, he discusses his time in the syndication department.

Administrative/Biographical history: Donald Wintersgill joined the Guardian in 1962 and worked as a sub-editor in Manchester, September 1962-March 1964. He then moved to London as a sub-editor on the 'backbench' from 1964 to 1973. He was syndication editor from 1973 to August 1997.

Interview with Richard Bourne, journalist for the Guardian. Conducted by Donald Wintersgill on 11 December 2002. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording and notes made during the interview.

Summary of contents of interview (with rough timings):

Track 1
00.38 Introductions and Guardian career 1962 - 1972
01.35 Describes the atmosphere of the Cross Street office in the 1960s
02.35 Tension between Manchester and London offices
03.35 Talented writers working for the paper when he arrived (Peter Eckersley, Dennis Johnson, Arthur Hopcraft)
06.53 Describes Harry Whewell and what he was like to work with
09.15 How he came to work for the Guardian, his Graduate Trainee interview

12.10 Describes Alastair Hetherington and what he was like as an editor
13.35 Discusses Stanley Reynolds, reporter, writer and critic
15.45 Stanley Reynold's description of Peter Preston's style
17.15 More discussion of the Cross Street Leader Writer's Corridor and Paddy Monkhouse, Assistant Editor
19.03 Discusses Alastair Hetherington
19.30 Geoffrey Taylor, Alistair Cooke, Richard Scott and Darsie Gille also writing for paper at the time

20.45 Frank Edmeade's resignation from the Guardian over Hetherington's stance on Vietnam
23.15 John O'Callaghan's resignation over the Guardian's Irish policy in the 1970s
24.25 The Guardian's stance on CND
25.30 Alastair Hetherington's stance on defence and journalists who wrote for him
26.40 Alastair Hetherington and Harold Wilson's closeness
28.16 Reported on Edward Boyle leaving politics during 1970 election campaign

30.55 Beginning of 'Education Guardian', one of the first supplements
34.20 Alastair Hetherington's opinion of Education Guardian
35.32 Life in the London office in Gray's Inn Road, editors' and sub-editors' sections, characters in the office

41.00 Sat with Nicholas De Jongh, Keith Harper.
41.30 Discussion about Peter Harvey, reporter and Australian
43.50 Peter Preston's rise through the ranks
47.33 Speculates as to why Peter Preston got editor's job
48.40 Working from Brazil, incident when round-the-world yachtsman reporting for the Guardian went missing

53.57 Discussion of the 'old Guardian', financial difficulties in the 1960s
54.49 Obituary of Laurence Prestwich Scott
55.30 Feeling of working on a paper with a particular mission
56.30 Campaigns about education and the students causes
57.48 Differing opinions between departments
59.05 Belief that the Guardian attracted 'Lib-Lab' people to its staff

[Technical hitch where contents of interview from this point were cut. Following is Donald Wintersgill recapping on what was missed]
61.03 Sotheby's advertising in the Guardian cancelled because of something Donald Wintersgill wrote
62.19 Bourne getting into trouble over offending an advertiser

Includes photographs of:
Wakefield, Marjorie
Walder, David
Wall, Michael
Ward, David
Ward-Thomas, Pat
Watts, Janet
Weatherby, William John
Webb, William Leslie
Weiss, Ruth
Whewell, Harry
White, Michael
Wilcox, Paul
Willis, Pauline
Wilshaw, Harold
Winchester, Simon
Wintersgill, Donald
Wolstencroft, Frank
Woodcock, Clive
Worrall, John
Wren, Mike
Wright, Hannah
Wright, Ian
Creator: Manchester Guardian; Picture Desk; Manchester Picture Library