Andrew Brown (OM) visited the College in late November to discuss 'Making a Living Through Writing' . Andrew Brown is an established journalist for The Guardian, sometime writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4's programme Analysis, and the author of several books on subjects as diverse as popular science and policing. To an audience of young literary enthusiasts, Brown shared his personal experiences of a career in journalism. With a number of anecdotes from his early career in Sweden to the thrill of his first published piece of writing, both the negative and positive aspects of journalism were explored. He successfully demolished the myth that professional writing is the pathway to riches. He also referred to his book Fishing in Utopia which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2009, a prestigious prize for political writing. In it, he skilfully interweaves a partial autobiography of his time as a young man in 1970s Sweden with his thoughts about Sweden's progressive socialist agenda of the time. It was very good to have some members of Marlborough town's Swedish community along to hear Mr Brown speak.
Abi McQuater (CO U6)