Norman White

“So, do you work for Biddles full time?” I asked the chap with the bottle of wine in his hand.

“Actually I own the company,” he replied, and smiled.

Covered in confusion, I said, “That’s a conversation stopper.” But, of course, it wasn’t. And the boat kept on sailing down river.

Erica and I were guests at Norman White’s retirement party on a Salters boat on the Thames yesterday evening. Norman is a long-standing and excellent rep for Biddles, one of the UK’s leading book manufacturers, and George Ronald Publisher Ltd was one of his accounts for many years.

Norman is “old school” in all the right ways: dedicated to service, with many years of hands-on experience in different aspects of print and publishing, warm-hearted and very helpful.

Even though it was Erica who was dealing with Norman, I always used to look forward to his visits to our home in Abingdon, which doubled as George Ronald’s office until we moved to Welwyn. A cup of coffee, some banter, and discussion about developments in print and publishing lightened the day.

And Norman was also very fond of Emma (our late-lamented Border Collie), as she was of him.

So last evening we floated down the Thames from Folly Bridge in Oxford as far as the Radley School boat houses to the sound of a trad jazz band (with a Sousaphone) to celebrate Norman’s years with Biddles.

It was a lovely evening - and there was a great spirit amongst the Biddles current and former staff.

Technorati Tags: Biddles, Thames, Salters, retirement

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite