I have extracted a few good pages from the May 1985 edition of Concourse. By that time, my Education and Welfare sabbatical year was coming to an end, so the paper was interested in ushering in the new and ushering out the old. Hold the front page…
There had been some sort of hoo-ha about the FY exams that Easter, so it seems that I got busy and Margaret Gordon (a lovely lass, I wonder what became of her?) interviewed me about it:
I like the next two pages – a double page spread on the new sabbaticals. Nice to still have pictures of faces I remember. Hayward Burt’s comments on my style raised a smile with me.
I love this little article about John White, Kate Fricker and the Students’ Union cleaners. John looks like a rabbit startled by headlights in the picture. Little did he know that he would subsequently become seasoned for photo shoots, such as his gig as the poster boy for Food Retailer Monthly magazine (or whatever it was called, why can’t I remember?)
Finally the following review of the UGM. These days, the (anonymous) author of this piece would surely not get away with the ethno-physiognomy remark made about me, especially in that context. Where was editor Krista Cowman’s red pen when I needed it? Surely the UGM and Concourse should have been safe space from such comments for people like me? Is it too late for me to seek redress?
Strangely, I have no recollection whatsoever of reading that comment before, although I must have read it, so it must have seemed like water of a duck’s par for the course back then.
That tank top was knitted by Auntie Celia (RIP) along with a full collection of astonishing knitwear that drew many an admiring comment. I still have her Arran jumper and occasionally I wear it. So there!
Ah, perhaps that explains the variance between the look illustrated and my memory of your sartorial elegance in those days, John, which I would describe as “early 1980’s Oxfam chic”.
While tidying up the Ogblog tags and stuff, I reread this piece this morning and thought, I wonder if I can answer my question “whatever happened to Margaret Gordon?” through the simple expedient of Googling her name.
Answer – yes I can. As recently as 2013 she was winning awards for her legal aid work, working for Imran Khan’s practice, as evidenced by the following link. Intriguingly, also winning an award that night was Russell Conway, the nice lawyer at Oliver Fisher across the road here, who has sworn documents for me over the years.
http://www.lag.org.uk/media/123096/laly_feature.pdf
Good stuff, Margaret; sounds as though you do really important work. Several links with Keele (Michael Mansfield, anti-fees student protests) in that one paragraph synopsis alone.