I was in my late 50s before I began to read the Guardian regularly. Until then my choice of newspaper had been determined in 1950 when, as a 21-year-old geologist, I lived in a tent in the Gold Coast [now Ghana]. Only the Times airmail edition was available, for collection every couple of weeks.
My involvement with earth sciences ended in 1986 when the newly created post of data protection officer was added to my duties at the Natural Environment Research Council. I so liked this topic that I grasped an opportunity to teach and write about data protection full time.
Misconceptions were legion in those early years of the legislation, and I soon found that letters to newspapers were an invaluable tool to clarify the issues involved and to publicise the act’s benefits. During these years, until I retired aged 70, over 100 of my letters were published; about 30 in the broadsheets.
The enjoyment of reading the Guardian set it apart from the rest; I also found its coverage and analysis of related items to be by far the best, and was pleased the editor accepted nearly a score of these letters. To my great delight, pocket cartoons were added to several, and I still have the framed originals.
Following retirement, and with most of my time happily spent on family, house and garden, it takes me all week just to read the Guardian’s Saturday edition. I enjoy the main section as much as ever, and read the Review and Family supplements cover to cover. I continue to be surprised by my involuntary flicker of excitement when I turn to the letters page.
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