In May’s Newsletter we asked members to send in books they had written which a member of our Committee would review. The first book in this occasional series is Not the Token Woman, My BBC Life 1975 – 1992 by Fiona Chesterton and is reviewed by Carol Owens.
There is much to relate to in Fiona Chesterton’s new book “Not the Token Woman”. She combines her personal experience as a News Trainee and staffer with perspectives from wider society at the time. Fiona started her BBC career in the same year that the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, and for much of the time was in the female minority at work. She became a working mother, a rarity in News and Current Affairs at the time, but received support from colleagues and managed to work her way up the editorial ladder to a series of senior positions.
Fiona’s account in this book picks up on the day-to-day processes of developing and delivering news stories, and the different dynamics of various BBC buildings including Broadcasting House, Lime Grove, White City, Southampton’s local station and Elstree. She recalls a number of colleagues who went on to great success in the organisation, including Mark Thompson and Tony Hall. There were frustrations along with the satisfactions, eventually falling under the dark cloud of John Birt’s closure of Lime Grove and introduction of Producer Choice. Fiona felt it was time for a change, and she moved to Channel 4 in 1992. The book notes that she didn’t look back, but this account is a warm retrospective on what it meant to be a woman in BBC News and Current Affairs at the time.
Available to buy at Amazon UK where it has 10 5-star reviews.
