Graham Ridout remembered

Peter Bill, author and journalist, former editor Estates Gazette and Building magazine writes:

Graham was ‘Uncle Grumpy’ to his colleagues at Building. A nickname that captured the feelings off all who worked with a much-loved man whose irascibility never got close to covering his kindliness, gentleness and generosity. I remember him making a wooden window from scratch for a penurious sub-editor.

He was my first boss in journalism. I can see him now at Contract Journal in the early 1980’s, fag centred in mouth, hunched over a typewriter, squinting through the smoke at his copy, cursing his mistakes. (Those were days when you needed Tippex to make changes.) Then we would go to the pub and curse our employers.

At Building, in the late 1980’s, we were overpaying an outside firm of architects to produce fortnightly ‘on-site’ articles. Much better to have a trained engineer in-house, one who had worked on building sites. Graham’s maturity and experience gifting him the ability to establish rapport with nervous site managers. He would nod encouragingly as he half-whispered questions, half- apologising for asking. A style that teased out tales you would never find anywhere near a press release.

To know Graham was to be fond of Graham.

Andrew Pring, writer, editor and communications consultant, former editor Contract Journal writes:

What I remember most is how incredibly hard working and painstaking Graham was as a journalist, and how patient – until, that is, he exploded into a titanic rage when people’s idiocies (generally management’s) got all too much for him. We’d laugh about it in the pub afterwards, but he could get seriously worked up and I often thought his stress levels were too high for anyone’s good – but he got that way because he took his job seriously and wanted to do his very best each time he worked on something. A lovely bloke, and also very kind and thoughtful. Someone you could always rely on to watch your back.

Gerald Bowey, CEO IBP remembers:

A civil engineering graduate of Sheffield University Graham was an award winning journalist, being shortlisted for a IBP journalism award on several occasions and winning Technology Writer in 1988, Project Management Writer in 1990 and Building Journalist in 1996.

I first met Graham in the early 1980’s when I took over the role of director of The Campaign for Traditional Housing from Charles Knevitt, who had just moved on to The Times as their architecture correspondent. It was a controversial campaign, taking an industry dispute between the brick and block manufacturers and the timber frame housebuilders to the general public. Graham was a tough critic of the campaign but acknowledged the right of house buyers to know and understand how their home was built.

When I moved into PR and Graham to Building I remember well standing in the middle of a stone quarry with Graham pitching into the chairman of London Stone when the company had fallen on hard times and was seeking a buyer – I think I lost the account after the article appeared, but it was a great expose of failed management.

We remained good friends, he was one of IBP’s honorary auditors for several years, and we met for an annual lunch right up to last year. Graham was generous with his time and support for friends and to IBP, which will be greatly missed.

Denise Chevin, freelance editor and writer, former editor Building magazine writes:

I remember with such affection my days working with Graham. I was an eager rookie technical reporter who didn’t know a lintel from a lentil. As my boss, Graham was hugely encouraging and endlessly patient. And when I got chuntered at by the subdesk, as I invariably did, for being late with my copy on Friday evening, he would have a calming G&T or two waiting for me at the ‘Waterfront’, Building’s watering hole in South Quay. They were lovely days. I feel very lucky to have met Graham and to have worked with him.