Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev – My First Front Page … 29 years ago

On hearing of the passing of former president of the USSR and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev, I was instantly taken back to a cold and rather dark night in December 1993 outside Astec Communications in Cheltenham.

As a young photographer just starting out for the Gloucestershire Echo (in fact I think I was technically still the darkroom printer) I was patiently but excitedly waiting for Mikhail Gorbachev to re-emerge from the Astec offices - crossing everything to get a decent picture of him hopefully waving to the crowd.

Very generously the then picture editor Tony Charnock had given me the prime spot with the potential for the best picture albeit with a huge gamble of an all or nothing position wedged right next to the door and perilously close to falling back down the steps. While he sensibly took the safer position of a bit longer shot but with guaranteed result of getting anything and everything that came out of the door.

The gamble paid off - thanks Tony for trusting me not to mess up and Anita Syvret for giving the printer a chance - that fleeting moment became my first front page picture - December 10th 1993.