Dossier 6 - Richard Bourne

1 audio tape, 1 CD, 1 file, 1 AIFF file (793.1 MB)

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

Access to recording via GNM Digital Repository

Copyright: Guardian News & Media Ltd and Richard Bourne