Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson on his blog picks out a picture from the Staffordshire Newsletter's nostalgia page. The paper had asked readers to identify the people in the picture taken in the Newsletter's old editorial office.Reader Anne James, the former front desk manager, identified cub reporter Aidan Goldstraw. He had a string of speeding and parking tickets, so the office asked Cheryl the policewoman kissogram, a regular classified advertiser, to surprise him.
But where is Aidan now?
A quick Google suggests he's now a freelance journalist, musician and electronic media specialist based in Stoke-on-Trent. http://www.goldstraw.com/
Oh my word... I remember this. However, I repudiate the claim that I had a string of parking and speeding tickets – I hadn't at that point passed my driving test, which was one of the conditions of my indenture at the Newsletter (the other was passing the NCTJ and shorthand, of course!).
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling this was probably agreed by someone on the Newsletter reception desk as a publicity stunt for the service and I was chosen as the random victim – and I remember it vividly, as we were in the middle of a shorthand lesson when it happened.
I work mostly as a musician these days, after 30 years in the regional press, but keep my hand in by editing Openings, the trade journal of the British Blind & Shutter Association, as well as other specialist magazine work.