Letters

  gerry_kreibich@hotmail.com

 

  Letters from former Richmond trainees are always a delight to receive, after all

  these years . . . but I'd welcome a few lines from anyone with anything relevant to say.

Richard Edmonson writes from Delhi:

I was part of the class of '79, which was such a bad crop that I think the most famous person to emerge from the year was Mrs Maxwell,the shorthand teacher. I worked for local newspapers near my family home in south Manchester for more years than my dear Mum cares to remember until the fateful day she got me a brand new set of luggage for my birthday. Then it was off to the Times (Melton Mowbray), theTelegraph (Peterborough Evening) and finally the golden streets and PA.

I was at the Independent for over 20 years - the last 10 as racing correspondent - which was proof positive that my research projects in the bookies of Sheffield were not the total waste my lecturers insisted at the time. For the last four years I've been freelancingout of Delhi, where my wife, Alex Crawford, is Asia correspondent for Sky News. (I did tell you Gerry that one day there would be a significant journalist in my household.)

The year I left UK I was voted Racing Journalist of the Year (you know you're getting old when you start getting long-service and pitying awards like that). Perhaps the most remarked-on of my pieces was an interview I conducted with the multiple champion racehorse trainer Henry Cecil. 'How did you get the great man to talk?' they asked me. It's all in the technique, I told them, without giving away a single clue or who I learned it from. You probably know.

Debbie Coxon (nee Wilkinson) writes from France:

Debbie here - Deborah Wilkinson, one of your pre-entry students, one of your more awkward customers I fear! I was one of six sponsored by The Sheffield Star circa 1973 - memories of a horrendous winter, no heating in college, no heating at home, what they now love to call a major snow event.

Can't say I made the big time - but I know a lot of people who have! Not a happy reporter but loved subbing and won Yorkshire Press Awards sub of the year at some stage. Went to London, casualled and eventually got a contract on The Sun. I was a features sub - great days. Loved Fleet Street (OK, Bouverie Street) - what a buzz there was. I remember once telling a bemused Kelvin MacKenzie how I loved the smell of printers' ink. I do, however, cherish his reply to my leaving The Sun - promising a job back any time. ( I also got a facsimile front page/page 3 with my face grafted onto Maria Whittaker's body! - now lost, thank goodness!!) I must say, when I was subbing Piers Morgan's Bizarre column I would never have thought he'd be popping up in my living room on TV every night!

Moved to North Devon, had my son and time out, eventually freelance writing, then book editing for a regional publisher and author of one book on Exmoor (home being on the southern edge). Now living in France.

Well, away to read all your online stuff asap. As I'm 55 this year, I guess you must be .... a smidge more, so just hitting all that online stuff is inspiring.

Though I didn't make the bigtime (yet), I would put a huge amount of where I did get down to you (and dear old Frank Littlewood). Thank you so much.

Martin Staniforth, former lecturer, writes:

Here's a blast for you from 1970 . . . I am Martin Staniforth, ancient colleague of yours in Sheffield, teacher of English to your students.

I left the college in Summer 1971 and so I think I taught for (was it ?) two NCTJ years - English and a bit of basic sociology. The students didn't need much teaching in English - they were already more than adequately literate - so I regarded my job mostly as providing 'experiences' for them, including the famous visit to the abattoir.

The workers there plunged us straight into the business, up and over our nostrils, offering us all a generous starter glass of fresh hot blood straight from the animal.

They slaughtered a line of pigs for us, gripping and straddling every animal,

finishing off by hooking into the leg and lifting it by chains up to a conveyor, where they slashed the throat. They showed us severed sheep's heads, they captive-bolted the foreheads of cows for us. This is too much detail.

We walked through blood and gore, animal shit and lakes of piss . . . then one student (David 'Flash' Kilpatrick) turned to me and said: 'I think I've got a hole in my shoe!'

I remember some of the girls got quite upset. In the pub afterwards,

nobody bought me a drink and everybody ordered a cheese sandwich in a sudden conversion to vegetarianism.

I remember Dave Simpson, Richmond heart-throb, playing it real cool with two of the most beautiful secretarial girls always panting after him. And there was Celia Gosling (in hot-pants), Peter Steward from Lavenham, Miranda Merry, Pat Griffin . . . where are they all now, in their fifties? Some of them may remember my amateur dramatics (yes, I did dragoon the students along in the interests of their cultural growth).

Me? Further-education jobs in Norwich, Manchester, Leeds, Portsmouth, Chichester, early retirement at 50 (thanks, Maggie!) Then travelling the world freelance for ten years, sourcing and selling specialised training. The dramatics paid off - between them, Granada and the BBC did eleven of my plays and episodes. Married (and divorced) with two daughters. I spend my life in London and Paris, with a house in each.

It would be interesting to hear news of the students I taught nearly 40 years ago.

   Gerry's note: see Peter Steward's letter below (second one down). He

  recalls the abattoir and the amateur dramatics.

Paul (Jake) Durrant (Assistant Editor, Eastern Daily Press) writes:

Dear Gerry,

I was in the pre-entry class of 1970-71 - your first year too, apparently, although I don't suppose any of us realised that at the time.

Reading your memoirs has brought some great memories flooding back which, at the risk of appearing a boring old fart, I'll share with you.

I was in digs in Stafford Road, with fellow students Dick Rayment and Joe Coonan, a mad Scouser called Eric and a mysterious lorry driver whose name I can't remember, who turned up from time to time when he wasn't on a long haul.

I remember vividly the organised trips to Markham Colliery, the Corporation abattoir, and to see a play called the Workhouse Donkey with English lecturer Martin Staniforth.

But more importantly, I remember the social life - the first time as a green 18-year-old I had been let loose in a big city. Hence, there were trips to the "Mucky Duck" (Black Swan); the Gay Paree every Friday lunchtime (after a session at the printing college) for a pint and a chip butty and, on the few occasions we could afford it, to nightclubs such as the Fiesta. It was at the Fiesta that we young wannabes were given the chance to interview the French crooner Sacha Distel.

We went to a fancy dress night somewhere, when I borrowed Marilyn Gubbins's tights and wig and went in drag. It made a fun piece for the Richmond Reporter, I recall, which was probably the first time I'd seen my by-line in print.

I also remember our five-a-side football team, led by Paul Thompson, but also Roger "Bite yer legs" Stansfield who screamed "'Unter!" after his beloved Leeds United centre half Norman Hunter every time he lunged into a tackle.

Great days. Great nights.

Thanks for all the words of wisdom you, Ron Eyley and Frank Littlewood drummed into us. It gave me the basis for a great career.

Peter Steward (Daily Telegraph) writes:

 

Dear Gerry,

 

I've just been looking at your website and the picture of the class of 70/71 at the coalmine. It was a day I remember very well. I have a copy of that pic and another which is a close-up of Joe Coonan (who was big in scratch cards when I last saw him nearly 30 years ago), Jake Durrant (who is very important indeed on the Eastern Daily Press) and myself - though we are hard to recognise with coal-caked faces and hard hats.

The mine trip was just one of the weird things we had to endure as NCTJ pre-entry students at Sheffield. The English lecturer - Martin Staniforth - took us to an abattoir and also made us work as hospital porters for a day. And he made us endure his amateur dramatics.

I remember other lecturers too - Ron Eyley, Frank Littlewood, Ron Webb, Mrs Lingard and Baz Fanshawe (shorthand), Arthur Goodwin (law), and John Richardson and Fred at the art college.

 

I write this sitting in The Daily Telegraph media emporium in Buckingham Palace Road. I used to be a sub but apparently I am now a production journalist (or PJ as we on-message colleagues say).

 

I have held various jobs on the East Anglian Daily Times, Birmingham Post, Sheffield Star, Evening Standard (chief sub), Daily Express and the Sunday Express (an assistant editor). The fact that they have all lost readers over the years is just a coincidence.

 

I've been commuting from Essex to London for more than 30 years now. and the travelling is beginning to get a little wearing. Trouble is, I have a wife and golf habit to support. I'll be in touch again, unless you've had too much already. Best wishes.

 

Mike Davies writes:

I was at Richmond in the early 1980s, on block-release from the Northampton Chronicle and Echo. I got through my Proficiency Test - with no little enjoyment along the way! And it's possiblethat I am one of the back-of-the-heads in your mystery photograph. The date is right.

 

My hazy recollection is as follows (left to right): Kate Atkins (Chronicle and Echo); Heather Clark (Leicester Mercury); Steve Hall (now Derby Evening Telegraph editor - see below); Jayne ? (hidden almost completely but with long curly hair - from Sutton-in-Ashfield as I recall); next - don't know, but nice sweater!; Dominic Kennedy (later on The Times?); me (but I don't remember the sweat-shirt and my hair looks a bit long); unknown female; Malcolm ? (then Redditch Advertiser, later a BBC Radio WM presenter).  Or it might not even be my class at all!

As for me, I went on to tour the nation (Milton Keynes Citizen, Scarborough Evening News, Birmingham Evening Mail, Oxford Mail, Bedfordshire on Sunday as group editor) before quitting five years ago to write and play music full-time.

Steve Hall (editor, Derby Evening Telegraph) writes:

Re Mike Davies's letter, I'm ashamed to say that I'm not sure whether it's me or not! Some of the backs of heads look vaguely familiar, but it seems so long ago that I'm not sure if I'd recognise my former classmates from the front, never mind from behind. It was great to read through the site, though. They were terrific days.

Gerry Hunt (Daily Mail) writes:

I'm told that someone suggests I'm on the class picture. But if the 1984 date is right, I'm definitely not there - I was at Richmond in 1973/4. But the bloke on the right does bear a startling resemblance to a teenage Gerry Hunt . . . apart from the spectacularly awful jumper.

Mike Treacy (East Anglian Daily Times) writes:

I really enjoyed your memoirs. I guess that as students we only glimpsed life on the surface at Richmond - many of us through the fog of hangovers. Your look behind the scenes is an almost Herriotesque account of the trials of a journalism lecturer. If you ever appear on Mastermind your specialist subject should be the chemical composition of black marker pens and misappropriation of office furniture.

Tony Goodson (YEP, ITN, Reuters, Sky) writes:

I came across your marvellous memoir while Googling "Proficiency Test speeches" for a forthcoming lesson on communication to sixth form students in Harrogate! I was at Richmond College on two block-release courses in 1972/3, from the Ackrill Newspaper Group in North Yorkshire. I was working on the Pudsey News at the time in Leeds and loving it. I think I was a pretty hopeless reporter but our group did manage to produce a dummy paper called Uranus - how original - that featured interviews with people from a huge Sheffield tower block, inspiringly headlined "Life at the top".

 

I remember Ron Eyley gazing out of the lecture room window across a sports field to a low rise building with four doors. He said: "The good journalist can always spot something unusual and want to discover why". We looked, and noticed that one door wasn't painted regulation blue but red. "Why?", we mused, sagely. "That could be a story", said Ron.

 

The college didn't seem like a college, which is the best compliment one can pay. It was full of practical common sense teaching and great instruction - even though we didn't realise it at the time.

 

I left Pudsey to go to the Yorkshire Evening Post, ITN, Reuters and Sky, ending up as managing editor of the Sky Sports Online business. Recently I've taken redundancy and am working for myself. It's just the kick up the arse those students got on day one when told to "go out, talk to someone and find a story".

 

I remember Mike Corner (Sheffield Morning Telegraph) very well - and the drubbing that he gave our efforts. And I remember interview exercises, particularly the pools winner and the cave rescue. The key to the rescue story was that one of the party was a woman - and you only found out if you asked how to spell the name.

 

It was my first time away from home, and staying with Mrs Broomhead in Sheffield was an education in itself as she was also landlady to many of the actors at the local rep. Sadly, no famous faces crossed her threshold while I was there.

 

Thanks Gerry and Ron and someone else called Martin who, aged about 36, became most indignant that our class said he was middle aged.

 

Ian Lyness (in Boulder, Colorado) writes:

Hello Gerry.

 

Ian Lyness here (Who he? you may well ask. One of your guinea pigs would be my reply). Long time no anything. What have you been getting up to since ... er ... 1972. (I did phone you a couple of times at Richmond College when I returned to Sheffield to work on The Star in the mid to late Seventies but never got a reply - perhaps you didn't get the messages - they may still be there, yellowing away somewhere!)

 

Anyway, a friend in London came across your history of the Richmond Reporter and emailed it to me out of the blue - I now live in Boulder, Colorado, in the shadow of The Rockies, 25 miles north of Denver. Your account took me back (and aback) as well as inspiring me to get in touch. I wouldn't presume to bore you with a potted personal history of the last 30 years unless you actually expressed an interest in hearing one. But I did manage to get myself a couple of dream jobs in journalism, including seven years in Fleet Street, am currently writing my second novel (he said grandly) and have often quoted your name over the years as a major influence on my career.

 

So how are you? Are you in touch with anyone from that memorable college year? I hope you're in the pink and I'd love to hear from you.

 

    (Gerry's note: I have written to Ian. If you remember him, let

  me know and I'll put you in touch.)

Ruth Morton (Stockport) writes:

Dear Gerry,

Here's another blast from the past. As Ruth Pullin, I was a student on the 1979-80 one-year course at Richmond. Our main lecturers were Peter and Lyn, and I remember Ron Eyley and Geoff Bull. And I've never forgotten your session on lateral thinking!

I didn't distinguish myself as a reporting whizz at Richmond, but I went on to work for the Redditch Advertiser, Tameside Advertiser, Salford City Reporter and Rossendale Free Press. I am now an editor for Plain English Campaign.

I was, however, a shorthand whizz and still have the college certificate signed by Margaret Maxfield to say I achieved 130wpm! I was also thrilled to get a B in my end-of-year project (something about the Manpower Services Commission and a feasibility study of unemployed youngsters in Sheffield) despite spelling feasibility wrong all the way through! (It so haunts me to this day that I've just got the dictionary out to check it.) I always thought I was a good speller - Peter Collins gave me 50p for being the only one in class who could spell haemorrhage!)

I've enjoyed your memoirs - just reading about the Richmond Reporter brought back those feelings of newsroom stress! Students from my year included Charlotte Nichol, later a football reporter for Radio Five Live (still there I think).

Thanks for the memories. I enclose a cheque for a copy of 'Far-off Days at Richmond College'.

Pete Moxon, White's Press Agency, Sheffield, writes:

So here am I, trying to earn a crust on a Friday morning , flogging an idea to the Sunday People, when a random thought triggers me to type a couple of words into Google - and by the wizardry of modern communications, electrickery and Google's lateral thinking I end up viewing black and white pictures from the seventies featuring names I know.

Where the hell am I! Two more clicks and a one-time journalism lecturer and piano player ( if memory serves) is explaining where I am and why I'm here . . . I'm back at Richmond circa 1970 - 72 (I think) on block-release courses and learning how to be a hack.

Hazy flashbacks seem to be the order of the day. Not very much clarity of thought or vision. Gerry - I remember you and your colleagues steering me through the proficency and I'm still hacking away 37 years later.

Sadly, I can't offer a 25-page CV studded with global success. Let's see.... errr, well, Rotherham Advertiser, the late Sheffield Morning Telegraph, White's Press Agency in Sheffield (a 30-year whistle stop on the way to Manchester .... London.... the

World... ). Ah well, somebody's got to stay and hold the fort.

So there's a new website saved to 'My Favourites' and I'll be reading through it just as soon as I've persuaded the Sunday People that this is a genuine exclusive!

Debbie Ambrose (now Breslaw) writes

from Finchley, London:

Came across your memoirs and notice that Chapter Nine recounts the story of how, as a student, I interviewed Jimmy Savile. (Incidentally, the interview was on his bed!) You have brought back a lot of memories for me.

I took the normal road to what was then Fleet Street - Wembley News, Hendon Times, Bournemouth Evening Echo, back to Hendon (because my mum died and the house was left to me and my sister), then the now-defunct Slough Evening Mail, then the Press Association at law courts, working in the newsroom in vacations. I started doing shifts on various nationals and ended up freelancing, mainly for the Sun and the News of the World. I then got into TV, working on the then Thames News local regional programme in London. The Today newspaper offered me a job and I stayed until early 1991. My twin son and daughter were born in 1990 and I later went back to Today on a three-day week.

I never went back into journalism after Today folded, and concentrated on bringing up the kids. Along the way I became a magistrate - all those days of court reporting gave me a taste for some power! My daughter aspires to be a journalist but wants to do theatre studies at university first.

I note that one of the letters above is from Ian Lyness, who was in my year. I’ve kept in touch with one or two of the others too.

  (Gerry’s note: Debbie’s group is pictured on Picture Gallery 1)

Sharon Holding writes

from Atlanta, USA:

Hey, Sharon Holding here - just checking to see if you remember me from a very long time ago at Richmond. I remember Pete Collins quite clearly - I think he told me I would never amount to much (ouch!)

I found you because I am applying for a new job and they needed proof of my attending Richmond. So I searched Google to see if the college still existed and came across your site.

After Richmond I worked on the Barnsley Chronicle for a few years. Then, after years of trying, I got a recording contract with Virgin Records. We flew to the States to record, came back and released a single called ‘Looking for Heroes’ that got to about 84 in the charts. With not much backing by Virgin we were later dropped and I moved to London for a while and worked in a lawyer’s office in Hammersmith.

Through a contact with my mother’s longtime pen-pal in Florida, I escaped dreary rainy days in London and went to Atlanta for a couple of weeks . . . and here I am 17 years later with two beautiful children and two divorces behind me, living the dream! One of my first real jobs here was selling internet connectivity to businesses, back in1993 when everyone thought it wasn’t going to last! I am now a senior account executive with a telecommunications company.

I lost touch with the people from my class, but I’d love to know where Maria and the rest ended up. I think there was also a guy named Keith. If anyone knows, please bring me up to date.

My mother was a journalist, and my 15-year-old daughter wants to study journalism in college. I’d much rather she became a pop star . . !