‘And when you went to Oxford, why didn’t you edit the student newspaper, or take over Isis, the university magazine?’
‘In those days I was far more interested in politics — and in any case, I knew I’d be spending the rest of my life in the newspaper world.’
‘Is it true that when you returned to Australia, you were devastated to find that your mother had sold the Melbourne Courier?’
‘Yes, it is,’ admitted Keith, as Heather walked back into the room. ‘And I’ll get it back one day,’ he added under his breath.
‘A problem, Heather?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow. She was standing only a foot away from him.
‘Yes. I’m sorry to interrupt you again, Mr. Townsend, but Sir Kenneth Stirling has been trying to get in touch with you all morning. He wants to discuss your proposed trip to the UK.’
‘Then I’ll have to call him back as well, won’t I?’
‘He did warn me that he’ll be out most of the afternoon.’
‘Then tell him I’ll call him at home this evening.’
‘I can see you’re busy,’ said Kate. ‘I can wait or come back at some other time.’
Keith shook his head, despite Heather remaining fixed on the spot for several seconds. He even began to wonder if Ken really was on the line.
Kate tried once more. ‘There are several stories among the clippings about how you took control of the Adelaide Messenger, and your coup with the late Sir Colin Grant.’
‘Sir Colin was a close friend of my father,’ said Keith, ‘and a merger was always going to be in the best interests of both papers.’ Kate didn’t look convinced. ‘I’m sure you’ll have read in the clippings that Sir Colin was the first chairman of the merged group.’
‘But he only chaired one board meeting.’
‘I think you’ll find it was two.’
‘Didn’t Sir Somerset Kenwright suffer roughly the same fate when you took over the Chronicle?’
‘No, that’s not quite accurate. I can assure you that no one admired Sir Somerset more than I did.’
‘But Sir Somerset once described you,’ said Kate, glancing down at her notes, ‘as “a man who is happy to lie in the gutter and watch while others climb mountains”.’
‘I think you’ll find that Sir Somerset, like Shakespeare, is often misquoted.’
‘It would be hard to prove either way,’ said Kate, ‘as he’s also dead.’
‘True,’ said Keith, a little defensively. ‘But the words of Sir Somerset that I will always recall are: “I couldn’t be more delighted that the Chronicle will be passing into the hands of Sir Graham Townsend’s son.”’
‘But didn’t Sir Somerset say that,’ suggested Kate, once again referring to her notes, ‘six weeks before you actually took over?’
‘What difference does that make?’ asked Keith, trying to fight back.
‘Simply that on the first day you arrived at the Chronicle as its proprietor, you sacked the editor and the chief executive. A week later they issued a joint statement, saying — and this time I quote verbatim...’
‘Your next appointment has arrived, Mr. Townsend,’ said Heather, standing by the door as if she was about to show someone in.
‘Who is it?’ asked Keith.
‘Andrew Blacker.’
‘Rearrange it.’
‘No, no, please,’ said Kate. ‘I have more than enough.’
‘Rearrange it,’ repeated Keith firmly.
‘As you wish,’ said Heather, equally firmly. She walked back out, leaving the door wide open.
‘I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time, Mr. Townsend,’ said Kate. ‘I’ll try to speed things up,’ she added, before returning to her long list of questions. ‘Can I now turn to the launching of the Continent?’
‘But I haven’t finished telling you about Sir Somerset Kenwright, and the state the Chronicle was in when I took it over.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Kate, ‘it’s just that I’m concerned about the calls you have to make, and I’m feeling a little guilty about Mr. Blacker.’
There was a long silence before Keith admitted, ‘There is no Mr. Blacker.’
‘I’m not sure I understand,’ said Kate.
‘He’s a code name. Heather uses them to let me know how long a meeting has overrun: New York is fifteen minutes, Mr. Andrew Blacker is thirty minutes. In a quarter of an hour she’ll reappear and tell me I have a conference call with London and Los Angeles. And if she’s really cross with me, she throws in Tokyo for good measure.’
Kate began to laugh.
‘Let’s hope you last the full hour. You’ll never believe what she comes up with after an hour.’
‘To be honest, Mr. Townsend, I wasn’t expecting to be given more than fifteen minutes of your time,’ Kate said, as she looked back down at her questions.
‘You’d begun to ask me about the Continent,’ prompted Keith.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Kate. ‘It’s often reported that you were devastated when Alan Rutledge resigned as editor.’
‘Yes, I was,’ admitted Keith. ‘He was a fine journalist, and had become a close friend. But the paper had fallen below 50,000 copies a day, and we were losing nearly £100,000 a week. Now, under the new editor, we have returned to sales of 200,000 copies a day, and will be launching a Sunday Continent early in the new year.’
‘But surely you accept that the paper can no longer be described as “the Times of Australia”?’
‘Yes, and I regret that,’ said Keith, admitting the fact for the first time to anyone other than his mother.
‘Will the Sunday Continent follow the same pattern as the daily, or are you going to produce the quality national newspaper Australia so desperately needs?’
Keith was beginning to realize why Miss Tulloh had won her award, and why Bruce thought so highly of her. This time he chose his words more carefully. ‘I will endeavor to produce a paper that the majority of Australians would like to see on their breakfast tables every Sunday morning. Does that answer your question, Kate?’
‘I fear it does, Mr. Townsend,’ she said with a smile.
Keith returned the smile. It quickly disappeared when he heard her next question.
‘May I now turn to an incident in your life that has been widely covered by the gossip columns?’ Keith reddened slightly as she waited for his response. His instinct was to end the interview there and then, but he just nodded.
‘Is it true that on your wedding day you ordered your chauffeur to drive straight past the church only moments before the bride was due to arrive?’
Keith was relieved when Heather marched into the room and said firmly, ‘Your conference call is due in a couple of minutes, Mr. Townsend.’
‘My conference call?’ he asked, brightening up.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Heather. ‘Sir’ was a word she resorted to only when she was very cross.
‘London and Los Angeles,’ she said. She paused before adding, ‘and Tokyo.’ Very cross, thought Keith. But at least she had given him the chance to escape. Kate had even closed her shorthand pad.
‘Rearrange it for this afternoon,’ he said quietly. He wasn’t sure which of the women looked more surprised. Heather left them without another word, and this time she closed the door behind her.
Neither of them spoke again until Keith said, ‘Yes, it’s true. But I’d be obliged if you didn’t refer to it in your article.’
Kate put her pencil down on the table, as Keith turned and looked out of the window. ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Townsend,’ she said, ‘that was insensitive of me.’