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Interview with Derek Bennett, printer for the Guardian. Conducted by Leslie Plommer on 6 December 2002. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording and notes on his career.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1
Track 1:
00.44 Born in Manchester 1931, family not in printing
01.17 Got stereotyping apprenticeship at Salford City Reporter, description of duties and printing process
03.03 Description of a 'flong'
06.00 Moved to the Guardian in 1951
08.42 Discussion of his duties and posting to Korea whilst on National Service

10.10 Reunion of troops in combat together in Korea, August 26 2000, and discussion about army career
15.30 Return home from Korea
16.10 Work at Cross Street casting advertisements
16.30 Description about casting - making plates, flongs etc.
18.00 Further casual jobs at City News in Manchester, and Stockport Gazette

20.30 Harold Geldard at City News docked wage by quarter of an hour, dispute led to better contract
23.50 Comparison to Guardian contract
24.20 Discussion about casual work
25.20 Buying a house
25.45 Dispute with Harold Geldard about printing and handing in notice at City News
28.00 Finding replacement Stereotyper at City News, Maurice Brown
29.10 Contacted Percy Martin at Guardian about a job
29.30 Application to go to Australia - Assisted Passage Scheme £10.00, leaving 1st February 1958

30.05 Asked Percy Martin for job for a few months before leaving
30.30 Arriving in Australia with no money
31.10 Finding work at printers - 187 Beckett Street [?White and Gellespie], proprietor - Bert Whitmore
32.00 Holiday in Sydney, discussion about moving to Sydney and finding work
34.15 Bert Whitmore helped find job in Camborne (suburb of Sydney) work in Stereotyping and vinyl plates
36.00 Work found at the Telegraph as Stereoptyper
36.15 Comparisons to Stereotyping in England
38.00 Became Deputy Overseer
38.20 Notice to leave with no prospects of another job
38.40 Went to Daily Mirror
39.50 Leaving Australia

40.40 Back in England, went to work at Guardian in 1962
40.50 Reasons for leaving Australia
42.50 Enjoying work at the Guardian
43.30 Dealing with libelous stories in the newspaper
44.00 Daily Express, [?Carol Sarler] discussion about libels in newspapers
45.40 'Chipping' plates on the press due to libel
48.20 Move to Deansgate, September 1969 printing moved
49.00 Working across two sites - Deansgate and Cross Street

51.00 Dispute with another member of staff about checking copies of Guardian and Daily Mail
54.55 Further discussion about the move to Deansgate, including moving and positioning of printing presses

Track 2:
00.15 Integration with the Daily Mail
02.10 Deputy Overseer position in 1965
03.50 Separating printers from the Daily Mail printers 1974
06.40 Stan Leggett retired 1975-1976, Derek Bennett took position of Overseer
08.15 Saving money on newsprint
13.55 Polymer plates tested

Disc 2
Track 1:
00.15 Polymer plates - reasons for using them, and introducing them into the printing process
02.45 Problems with vacuum in printing
03.00 Visible improvement in quality of print
03.40 Colour printing press bought from Canada
05.20 Vibrations affected colour register, sensors put on
07.05 Role of Overseer

Track 2:
00.10 Responsibilities of role of Overseer
03.25 Discussion about Len Spate, Stereotyper
07.05 Guardian not best paid job in comparison to other newspapers
08.40 Discussion about working with metal (fumes etc.) and conditions in print room

Photographic negatives of portraits of Derek Birkin taken by Ted Hamilton West for 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