Almost four and a half decades ago, Bill Anderson gave me my first job (Obituaries, The Herald, February 10).
I had just graduated from Glasgow University and most of my friends were shooting for megabucks with banks or chemical companies. After an interview doon by the Broomielaw, not far from Dirty Dick's bar, Bill gave me a job on the Sunday Post as a cub reporter. I was 21 years old and happy as Larry. I didn't understand money. I knew, as Bill did, that words would be our only currency – for the rest of our lives, as it turned out.
Bill did me the honour of letting me be the Hon Man – a top secret assignment, they always gave me a wee white face on the page. One of the first assignments went like this: "Phil, We'll give you a car and we want you to travel the coast of Scotland. Every inch. Start on the south-western border. Turn left at every opportunity. Keep the sea on your left. End up on the south-east, right on the English Border. Don't straddle it. Keep both feet on Scottish soil."
It took me four weeks, as I recall, and my Hon Man stories from that trip probably ran for six weeks in the Sunday Post.
I remember Bill's comment when I got back from that one: "Whit kept ye?"
Phil Davison,
Water Lane House,
Richmond upon Thames.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article