File 80 - Tom Sharratt

1 minidisc, 1 cd, 1 file, 4 AIFF files (793 MB)

Interview with Tom Sharratt, journalist for the Guardian. Conducted by Leslie Plommer on 31 May 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
00.50 Aspirations to work for the Guardian. Previous career at Lancashire Evening Telegraph & Daily Telegraph
04.25 First impressions upon joining foreign desk - 'everyone known by their initials'
05.58 Cuttings on the walls with reference to delivery methods to Manchester suburbs
06.59 CP Scott's traditions
08.30 Foreign editors
09.10 Moving to new office complex

11.30 Big changes in 1976 with large amount of production transferred to London
11.30 Applying for job as a reporter, which had been agreed to by Alastair Hetherington
12.39 Scholarship to Australia in 1971, and being allowed extra holiday time
14.40 Adoption of 'provincial' printing ideas in 1974 after he'd seen in Australia

Track 2
00.30 Northern news editor, Harry Whewell
02.44 Paddy Monkhouse
03.10 Alastair Hetherington's change in stance on Vietnam
06.57 Briefing in Hawaii
07.34 Routine of ringing foreign correspondents for dictation of story - copies made by 'the girls over in Cross Street'
08.52 Alistair Cooke's writing style, and advice on writing, 'listen to the sound of the words'

10.02 On Alistair Cooke's obituary of Walt Disney
11.00 Copying & corrections, composing and compositions

Track 3
00.30 First piece on the death of the inventor of Cat's eyes
01.50 Ringing up people for information. On his attitude to bereavement in writing obituaries
03.19 Barbara Castle

11.44 Call from Anne McHardy, Assistant News editor about Lockerbie plane crash
13.47 Getting to Lockerbie. Giving two doctors a lift
15.37 Reaching crash site
17.02 Interviewing Doctors
17.48 Meeting Peter Hetherington in Lockerbie town
18.13 Press Conference, initiative of communicating report with all phone-lines down
19.17 The next day 'all the fields were covered in tinsel'
19.18 First supposition on what might have caused the crash

23.00 Attitudes of the press to disasters, including Manchester Airport disaster
24.41 Political interests
25.46 First conference at TUC in Blackpool. Encouraged by Keith Harper
27.16 Interest in police matters, crime and home affairs
28.26 'I'd been to more prisons than most villains'.
28.26 Invitation to be a guest speaker at a police federation conferences in 1981/2

30.00 Looking for the oddities in life, including world worm charming championships in the late 1980s
32.30 Incidences of using pictures of a story and leaving out the journalists work
34.49 Relationship with Peter Preston
35.34 Elected as councillor on Lancashire County Council as a member of the Labour Party
37.18 Resigned from Transport & General Workers Union (TGU) in 1990
37.45 False allegations against himself and his membership being withheld in 1996

Track 4
00.01 Brutality he witnessed towards women in the TGU
01.41 Role and influence of the union in local politics
02.55 The unions interest in political power

Access to recording via GNM Digital Repository

Copyright: Guardian News & Media Ltd and Tom Sharratt