File 111 - John Palmer

2 cds, 2 AIFF files (1.32 GB). 1 hour 3 minutes.

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

Restricted - access to edited copy via GNM Digital Repository

Copyright: Guardian News & Media Ltd and John Palmer