REVIEW: Memoirs Of A Media Maverick By Boyce Richardson

"Memoirs" never quite takes off into the flashy personal drama one might expect from its title; Richardson's subtle conflicts with his editors, their remote censorship of his field reports, rising tensions etc are usually resolved when he simply pulls up roots and finds another job, another town. It's clear his left leanings have always rankled his superiors, and his resistance to promotion and other "methods of control" are inspiring in their simplicity and forthrightness; but the word "Maverick" conjures up images of Orson Welles or Roger Corman which don't quite emerge in this book. True, there's a photo of him as he "mockingly kisses the ground the Queen has just walked on," errant behaviour for an international pool reporter. He, also, once handed his editor a gag obituary for their publisher's mother, disturbingly hilarious, and perhaps his ballsiest work: she "lived for 80 years and did singularly little with them… did no one any harm, and no discernable good."

Characters never quite take shape in this book, except for Richardson himself. The lightning sketches of key colleagues and loved ones are written, as the author points out, in the style he learned at writing school, Newbattle Abbey in Scotland, from the "well-known Scottish Poet Edwin Muir: 'the purpose,' said Edwin…, 'is to train students in the art of expressing their thoughts and feelings, clearly and exactly, so that they may form a good style…' and ever since I have tried to express my thoughts and feelings… just as he taught us." But, as I say, "Memoirs'" anecdotal style (not to mention the astounding pace) never gives the characters time to flesh out; they become pop-up book illustrations, interesting, but passing quickly once their narrative usefulness is exhausted.

Then again, trying to pick key episodes to mention in this review, I realize how jam-packed the book is: Richardson's early interview with Leonard Cohen; battles between British leftists and obscure Prime Ministers (MacMillan?); a first-hand account of Churchill's last tremblingly-frail visit to Parliament; encounters with South African exiles; even third-hand James Joyce anecdotes! A visit to a communal Chinese farming village. Hunting trips with First Nations in northern Quebec. Letters from Nehru. Intense Rugby analysis. Insider accounts of how the English Montreal press besmirched the Quebec Separatists, coupled with Richardson's own harsh critique of the sovereignists and English-left support for them. A primer on Swedish city planning.

Reading this book, I'm reminded once again of the narrow scope of Canadian discourse, and the depression that someone like Richardson has no national fanbase and following. Someone capable of so jaunty and chock-full a set of memoirs could fill talk-show after talk-show with amusing, educational and progressive energy. Perhaps he's not a wacky entertainer like Rick Mercer, or a hardcore visionary like Norman Bethune, but his lifelong ethical-tightrope act through corporate and government media make damn good reading.

AVAILABLE FROM Between the Lines books

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FLICK HARRISON is a filmmaker / writer in Vancouver. His digital feature film “Sex, Drugs, Love, Marx…” is available for screening anywhere! See his trailers, articles, and more at armed rabble.org! His column on politics and film appears biweekly on Vive le Canada.

Note: Richardson AVAILABLE FROM Between ... armed rabble.org