In at the Deep End

David Richardson is a veteran farmer, businessman and communicator whose skills have been recognised over the years by both peers and admirers. During more than 50 years of writing and broadcasting about farming, food and the countryside he has earned a reputation for straight talking and common sense. His analyses of rural issues are uncompromising. His criticisms of officialdom are penetrating and his recognition and exposure of humbug are instinctive and incisive. But David is also a family man, carrying on the skills and standards established, by his farming father, supported by a wife and family who themselves have all contributed to his story as agriculturalist, writer and broadcaster. Personal tragedies and achievements are chronicled in this book, interspersed with tales of politicians and the media. From small farm beginnings he won a scholarship to the City of Norwich School but left before he was 16 to start earning his living from farming rather than seeking higher education at university. His activities in Norfolk Young Farmers soon marked him out, both to Lorna, who would become his wife, and to television, radio and magazine bosses. Almost by accident, as he explains in these pages, he developed his career at Anglia Television, then at the BBC, later adding regular contributions to magazines and newspapers at local and national level. Now in his eighties, David has decided to tell his own story, punctuated with numerous anecdotes, many of them humorous, of his life in farming, business management and the exciting worlds of print and broadcast media.