My subscription to the Guardian Weekly began in about 1980, at the same time as I began travelling into Vancouver to play rugby. Gibson’s Landing is an hour’s ferry ride from Vancouver and my GW and Walkman fitted nicely in my kitbag. I’d grab a coffee on the way up to the top deck, heading outside for a puff, put on some tunes and find out what was going on in the world.
All these years later, when I go into Vancouver (now mostly to see grandchildren), it’s the same drill, but with an iPod. And even in this internet age I’m still reading GW, each week, cover to cover.
I love newspapers but there is a dearth of quality here on Canada’s west coast. I listen to CBC for my news but rely on my GW for the detail, for the informing perspectives, for the connection of events in our deeply interconnected world.
Over the years I’ve had many GW favourites: Nancy Banks-Smith, Zia Mahmood (I miss the bridge column), but there’s no shortage of great GW reading today: Larry Elliott and Marina Hyde are just a couple of personal favourites.
I’d like to thank the editors and reviewers from the Books section – probably my favourite part of the paper – for the many, many books they’ve turned me on to. The world comes to me each week through my GW and, after decades of fun and deep profit, I’d like to say thanks from the bottom of my heart.
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