Beyond Radio volunteer ROSS CHAPMAN recently visited the offices of The Guardian newspaper where he chatted to its North of England editor and former Morecambe High School pupil HELEN PIDD.
Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to spend the day at The Guardian’s Manchester office.
It was a fascinating insight into the world of those working for a national newspaper.
Reporters in the office were covering all sorts of stories from the serious to the weird and wacky, and to see how they went about doing that was incredibly interesting!
The Guardian’s North of England editor Helen Pidd, who hails from the local area, spoke to me all about her early life and where her passion for journalism has taken her.
“I was born in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in 1981, my mum and dad had moved to Hest Bank before I was born," said Helen.
"My dad was an academic at Lancaster University and my mum was a psychiatrist at Lancaster Moor Hospital, which has now turned into flats.
“I went to St Luke’s Primary School in Hest Bank and then to Morecambe High School for secondary school and sixth form. I haven’t lived in the local area since but my parents are still there.”
Helen still goes back to the local area regularly and, as is to be expected when covering the north, has done a few pieces on Morecambe and the surrounding area.
“The last story I did about the area was when Eden Project Morecambe received £50m," she said.
“As a reporter, you are supposed to be impartial about the news but I’ve always been very unashamedly pro-Eden Project because it could be transformational for Morecambe and the surrounding area.”
There are many places locally that give Helen nostalgia and remind her of her roots.
“Whenever I’m in the local area, I like going on the Promenade because I spent so much time there waiting for the bus!
"I used to like going to Sam’s Fish Bar, the chip shop, and the Midland Hotel (pictured below) for a treat.
“I feel very sentimental about the beach at Hest Bank. When I was a teenager I used to go down there having parties and lighting fires!”
Helen’s ambition to go into journalism began from a young age in the local area, and her journey in the industry started through a radio station.
“I started wanting to be a journalist when I was at Morecambe High School," she said.
"I was 14 at the time and there was a poster in one of the classrooms. It was an advert for BBC Radio Lancashire encouraging young people to get in touch with ideas for programmes.
“I wrote them quite a cheeky letter critiquing them and sort of saying ‘I don’t listen to Radio Lancashire, none of my mates do!’ and they rewarded me with an invitation to the studios in Blackburn with three of my friends. We did a live morning show doing a live challenge, that went well and they asked me back the next week.
“Before long, they gave me this transmitter that I had in my bedroom, and every Saturday morning I had a slot on the radio and they beamed live to my bedroom. My best friend Amanda also did it with me after she’d finished her paper round!
“I then did work experience at the Lancaster Guardian as part of my work experience at Morecambe High School and from then I got the journalism bug.
"I’ve always been nosey and I get to ask loads of questions you wouldn’t get to ask in everyday life and I’ve found it all exciting and glamorous.”
Helen studied German at Edinburgh University and wrote for the student newspaper while studying the course, winning Scottish Student Journalist of the Year and was runner-up in the Guardian Media Awards, both of which came from paid work experience.
“That was really how I got into doing journalism properly, but I was always doing journalism in my teenage years too," she said.
"I wrote a fanzine for a band I liked and I used to run a newspaper with a friend of mine during the Edinburgh festivals called ‘Fest’ which is still going.”
Helen joined The Guardian in 2004 and has been there ever since.
“I started off in the features department as an editor on the G2, the Guardian feature section, then I realised that, if you’re an editor, you don’t get to leave the office.
"I like being out and about, so they sent me to train to be a reporter and I went to Sheffield University to do a postgraduate diploma in journalism.
“I’ve been a reporter since 2006, I was foreign correspondent for a bit in Berlin, then did a stint in Delhi, then moved back to the north in 2013 and I’ve been North of England editor ever since.
“Delhi in 2012 was a very exciting place to be but it was tough, being in a country with 1.4bn people speaking languages I didn’t speak. It’s not a great place to be if you’re a woman either, and there’s a lot of pollution.
“I got loads of great stories though and it was certainly an interesting experience!”
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