BLOKES’ BOOK CLUB

“So, nobody’s read the book? Great! Let’s crack into the beers!”

passing (“We don’t know how lucky we were”, April 22), and his comments on the NZBC in the 70s and why he left our shores, revived a painful memory.

In the same period, as a young female graduate, I was interviewed for a job with the NZBC. The middle-aged male HR manager’s first question was, “What did your father do?” When I replied that he was a policeman, it became obvious that the job requirement was a family in the “professional classes”. Next was, “What school did you go to?”Again, it was obvious the correct answer would have been a private school.

With the double whammy of a non-professional background and having attended a state school, I was abruptly sent on my way. Although his attitude was not unexpected in those days, I was humiliated for long afterwards at being dismissed not on merit but on origins. When working in London over several years, I never had the courage to apply for jobs at the BBC or similar organisations, not wanting to repeat the mortification of confronting the “closed shop”.

It was interesting to read now how 70s attitudes drove someone as precious and talented as Clarke to leave. Lynne Mitchell (Devonport, Auckland)

RECOGNISING RUTHERFORD

We’ve had several series on Ed Hillary and one on Jean Batten, so why not one on our greatest New Zealander, Ernest Rutherford (“The importance of being Ernest”, April 15)? Roger Hall (Takapuna, Auckland)