I grew up in the west of England in a progressive News Chronicle-reading family. One morning, to our horror, the Daily Mail arrived in its place after the Chronicle closed down in 1960. My parents promptly switched to the Manchester Guardian and when I started travelling, I always made a beeline for the British Council offices in capital cities in order to read the Guardian and the Observer, and catch up on world events.
Finally I settled in Australia, and so the Guardian Weekly in its old crinkled form became my lifeline, once I realised how so much of the Australian media was controlled by Rupert Murdoch and that there was very little international coverage in any of the papers. It remains hardly surprising that so many of the Weekly’s readers are Australian.
As a high school teacher, I use many of the articles in my humanities classes and with the digital edition, can forward items to a circle of friends as well as students. In addition to my own subscription I have taken out three others for family and friends, both in Australia and overseas.
When I return to England to visit family, one of the highlights is having the leisure to read the Guardian and the Observer. Once on the bus, I note that most of my fellow passengers are glued to electronic devices while I happily continue to read my paper, sad that they no longer indulge in one of life’s joys.
If you would like to appear in this space, send a brief note to guardian.weekly@theguardian.com
