As far as I can remember, the first adult newspaper I ever read was The East Anglian Daily Times.That’s about all I can recall now except that I was fiercely loyal to it and proud of its austere and serious appearance and approach, never more so than when returning home from boarding school. It was as though, by the very fact of being born and brought up in Suffolk, I was privy to the best newspaper in the world.
When we crossed the border into Essex in 1960, the paper of reference became The Braintree and Witham Times, a local rather than a regional publication. I eagerly scoured for details of cricket matches giving details of my exploits over the summer season. I also looked forward to reading the weekly editorials penned by pipe-smoking Les Spurling, the Sage of Beacon Hill. ln those days the sporting of a pipe was synonymous with wisdom, and there were cohorts of such smokers to be seen at university, searching like the rest of us for a sense of identity. Do people still smoke pipes today? My brother and I gleefully scoured Les’s column for his take on current affairs. But, although I never let on to my brother, I was in fact torn between making fun of Les and his small-town smugness and yearning for a peaceful life in the country. As a matter of fact, I very nearly did go down that road; my mother arranged for me to see a Mr Church, a country solicitor who had been a friend of my father's before the war, with a view to pursuing a similar career. In the event, for reasons which need not detain us here, nothing became of this idea. I don't suppose it would have made a blind bit of difference anyway
At university, I read The Northern Echo, full of gritty news about about what, if anything, was going on in the North-East. Before and after my years at Durham, I was also and in particular an assiduous reader of the national press, but hardly ever of The Times. I think this was largely because my stepfather was a staunch Daily Telegraph man. The Telegraph was the place to go to if you were interested in sport, in particular cricket, rugby or golf. In every way, I can say that newspapers, even the tabloids, were more serious than they are today in the sense that there was usually a concerted effort to separate fact from opinion. It may come as a surprise for younger readers to learn that probably the best of the lot, combining news with enlightened opinion, was The Daily Mail which enjoyed a golden period in the 1970s and 1980s under its editor David English.
By this time I was living in France and my consumption of English newspapers had dropped drastically as a result. Same-day delivery was virtually unheard of (and hideously expensive), and I was reduced to walking down to the railway station in Lyon on the off-chance that The Sunday Telegraph had arrived. This was the beginning of the Dark Ages which lasted right up to the end of the century and was characterised by almost total loss of contact with British civilisation. I'm afraid I have never got the hang of French newspapers, a pretty tame lot compared to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. In fairness, and subject to correction, there is probably more hard news in Le Monde than in any other daily in the world, and it is true to say that, despite dire provocation, the French press has never descended to the depths of the British tabloids. Would this be due at least in part to the fact that many newspapers are subsidised by the State and therefore somewhat bland and subservient?
The Renaissance came in the shape of The International Herald Tribune, alone among English-speaking papers to guarantee (more or less) same-day delivery. It took me a bit of time to get used to its obsession with stocks and shares and to its fondness for advertisements for people called “escorts”, but I came to appreciate its team of in-house journalists including Christopher Clarey, Patricia Wells and Sourien Melikian.
I never thought the day would come when I would forsake the printed page for the online world, but that day did come and I jumped at the chance - and saved money in the process. I could have opted for the digital edition of a British newspaper but, having become accustomed to an international take on the news, I was quite happy to continue in that direction.
So that's where I am today.
When we crossed the border into Essex in 1960, the paper of reference became The Braintree and Witham Times, a local rather than a regional publication. I eagerly scoured for details of cricket matches giving details of my exploits over the summer season. I also looked forward to reading the weekly editorials penned by pipe-smoking Les Spurling, the Sage of Beacon Hill. ln those days the sporting of a pipe was synonymous with wisdom, and there were cohorts of such smokers to be seen at university, searching like the rest of us for a sense of identity. Do people still smoke pipes today? My brother and I gleefully scoured Les’s column for his take on current affairs. But, although I never let on to my brother, I was in fact torn between making fun of Les and his small-town smugness and yearning for a peaceful life in the country. As a matter of fact, I very nearly did go down that road; my mother arranged for me to see a Mr Church, a country solicitor who had been a friend of my father's before the war, with a view to pursuing a similar career. In the event, for reasons which need not detain us here, nothing became of this idea. I don't suppose it would have made a blind bit of difference anyway
At university, I read The Northern Echo, full of gritty news about about what, if anything, was going on in the North-East. Before and after my years at Durham, I was also and in particular an assiduous reader of the national press, but hardly ever of The Times. I think this was largely because my stepfather was a staunch Daily Telegraph man. The Telegraph was the place to go to if you were interested in sport, in particular cricket, rugby or golf. In every way, I can say that newspapers, even the tabloids, were more serious than they are today in the sense that there was usually a concerted effort to separate fact from opinion. It may come as a surprise for younger readers to learn that probably the best of the lot, combining news with enlightened opinion, was The Daily Mail which enjoyed a golden period in the 1970s and 1980s under its editor David English.
By this time I was living in France and my consumption of English newspapers had dropped drastically as a result. Same-day delivery was virtually unheard of (and hideously expensive), and I was reduced to walking down to the railway station in Lyon on the off-chance that The Sunday Telegraph had arrived. This was the beginning of the Dark Ages which lasted right up to the end of the century and was characterised by almost total loss of contact with British civilisation. I'm afraid I have never got the hang of French newspapers, a pretty tame lot compared to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. In fairness, and subject to correction, there is probably more hard news in Le Monde than in any other daily in the world, and it is true to say that, despite dire provocation, the French press has never descended to the depths of the British tabloids. Would this be due at least in part to the fact that many newspapers are subsidised by the State and therefore somewhat bland and subservient?
The Renaissance came in the shape of The International Herald Tribune, alone among English-speaking papers to guarantee (more or less) same-day delivery. It took me a bit of time to get used to its obsession with stocks and shares and to its fondness for advertisements for people called “escorts”, but I came to appreciate its team of in-house journalists including Christopher Clarey, Patricia Wells and Sourien Melikian.
I never thought the day would come when I would forsake the printed page for the online world, but that day did come and I jumped at the chance - and saved money in the process. I could have opted for the digital edition of a British newspaper but, having become accustomed to an international take on the news, I was quite happy to continue in that direction.
So that's where I am today.
I think the Dark Ages would have come upon you even without your move to France. But your description of the Daily Mail as was does at least explain why some otherwise sane people are still reading it - a sort of misbegotten loyalty! Gran took it, if you remember, but I always thought that was for the gossip page which was certainly gripping. For her more serious reading she took the Manchester Guardian. The Brainless and Witless still exists but is a sad travesty.
ReplyDeleteIs there a digital edition of the Braintree and Witham Times?
ReplyDeleteHere you go:
ReplyDeletewww.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk eedition
Thanks Smocky. Who ever would have guessed! As you can see, I've cleaned up the post a little!
ReplyDelete