Dossier 56 - David Marquand

1 minidisc, 1 cd, 1 file, 2 AIFF files (675.4 MB)

Interview with David Marquand, leader-writer for the Guardian. Conducted by Malcolm Dean on 31 January 2002. 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
01.06 Torn between academic work and journalism
01.58 Refused editorship of Isis, student paper at Oxford University
02.42 Year as a graduate student at St. Anthony's
02.56 Postgraduate year in America at the University of Berkley
03.19 Offered a summer job at the Guardian whilst still at St. Anthony's
04.42 Discusses summer job as a leader-writer in Manchester
05.36 Returned from America
05.40 Offered a job at the New Statesman but advised to return to the Guardian
06.09 Moved to Manchester to join the Guardian
06.42 Discusses the Guardian reporting on the Suez crisis
07.45 First impressions of the Guardian
08.15 Discusses sharing a room with Frank Edmead, leader-writer

10.10 Didn't have leader conferences at this time
10.50 Started work at 4pm, finished by 11pm
12.36 Discusses the standard format for writing 'bi-laterals'
12.56 Explains 'bi-laterals' - long, a two par, and a short
14.33 Deadline for submissions was 8pm
14.45 Remit was supposed to be foreign affairs
15.33 How Alastair Hetherington edited leader-writing
16.24 Generating article ideas and access to information
18.53 Relationship with other staff members

20.29 Significant stories during his time at the Guardian
22.20 Central Manchester was very bleak and quiet
23.13 Lived in Didsbury, where CP Scott and 'everybody lived'
23.40 Discusses the Cuban crisis
26.50 Guardian's position on Lib-Lab

30.08 Hugh Gaitskell's famous 'fight, fight, fight' speech in 1961
31.52 Another big issue at the time was the economy and common market
33.16 The removal of 'Manchester' from title and news on the front page
34.08 Anecdote: Guardian ran a front page story predicting the wrong 1959 election result
36.02 How the Guardian felt about the Tory Government
39.38 Guardian was like a graduate school
39.57 Employees were 'intellectually high class... some remarkable people'

40.12 Moved to London in Autumn 1961
40.38 Offer from the Observer to work one day a week
40.51 Bargained with Alastair to work at the Guardian two days a week
41.15 Discusses John Maddox, Bill Webb and Harold Griffiths
42.30 Remembers debates with Leonard Beaton
44.08 Discusses foreign coverage, America, Iceland, Paris
47.46 'It wasn't a subs paper it was a writers paper'
48.37 Alastair Hetherington and his writing style

52.14 Still no leader conferences in London
53.44 Offered a lectureship in 1962 and left the Guardian
54.41 Continued to write for the Guardian post 1962
54.56 Opinion of the Guardian today
55.27 How to pitch writing style for Guardian readers, writing for the elite

60.57 How politicians view and respond to the press

Track 2
Test

Access to recording via GNM Digital Repository

Copyright: Guardian News & Media Ltd and David Marquand