STEPHEN SMITH: I now have great pleasure in inviting Professor Keith McLay, Pro Vice-Chancellor Dean of The College of Arts, Humanities and Education, to give the commendation for the conferment of the Honorary Doctor of Letters to Ann Treneman.
PROFESSOR KEITH MCLAY: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, honoured guests and graduands it gives me great pleasure to be presenting today Anne Treneman for the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters.
Ann is a journalist, author theatre critic and columnist. In 2015 she became the Chief Theatre Critic of The Times, having been the parliamentary sketch writer for the previous 12 years. She has published four books and has won and been shortlisted for many awards.
Ann has lived in the UK since the mid-1980s. She originally came over from America in 1979 to study a semester in London on the history of the British press as part of her BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon. She came back in 1984, this time for good. These were the key dates for Anne as she was here for the Winter of Discontent and the miners’ strike, two seminal events in modern British political history. She has been in the UK ever since working as a journalist.
Until September 2015, Anne was the award-winning Times Parliamentary Sketch Writer. In this role she frequently reduced the serious business of politics to playground spats between bickering children. A recurring theme in her work is a humorous written portrayal of politicians as ridiculous caricatures in the style of a modern-day William Hogarth cartoon. Total Politics magazine referred to Ann as one of the sharpest wits in Westminster.
Ann ceased to be The Times’ Parliamentary Sketch Writer just before Brexit began dominating public life. She then became Chief Theatre Critic for The Times covering a wealth of memorable performances including Jez Butterworth's ‘The Ferryman’ and ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’. She has just stepped down from the role in order to return to university to study landscape architecture and horticulture.
Ann lives in Bakewell in Derbyshire where she indulges her passion for gardening. Her Derbyshire garden along with her knowledge and advice to fellow gardeners often features in The Times and other newspapers.
Ann has published four books, three of them covered stellar political eras: the expenses scandal, the start of the coalition and the end of it. Her non-political book, the cheerily titled ‘Finding The Plot: A Hundred Graves To Visit Before You Die’ received outstanding reviews and involved Ann spending a huge amount of time in graveyards. It arose from her interest in researching the last resting places of significant characters from history and has led to Ann's theory as to why so many people end up buried in the wrong place.
In December 2018 Ann became the new President of the private subscription library, Bromley House in Nottingham. She first visited the library as a guest speaker in 2016 in its bicentenary year to give a talk on graves.
Ann still writes a weekly column, interviews and feature articles for The Times and its Saturday magazine while appearing regularly at literary festivals talking about theatre politic and graves.
Chancellor in recognition of her outstanding career as a journalist, sketch writer and theatre critic and her contribution to the British media, we are delighted to award Ann Treneman the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
ANN TRENEMAN: Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen and graduands of 2019. Thank you so much for that splendid introduction, journalists are far more used to brickbats than bouquets and so I'm going to savour every moment of this.
I chose to become a journalist more than 40 years ago when my parents told me, after I had spent two years at the University of Oregon studying everything from botany to Bob Dylan's poetry, that it was time to make a decision. I did something surprisingly sensible, I asked myself a question what am I actually good at, what comes naturally, what seems easy? The answer was writing. I'd always loved words and had an ability to string them together but I'd never valued it or thought it would be part of my career, but now forced to make a decision I realised that to spend my life with words would not be a bad thing. My parents were thrilled, I'd made a decision any decision, though I can remember my father saying to me you'll never be rich. This turns out to have been true, though it also depends on how you define rich. Journalism has made me tremendously animated, excited, furious, and happy over the years, I've never been bored.
So, my first piece of advice to graduands today is to remember to value what you are good at. Talent gives you an extra edge in a competitive world. It is one of my theories that so many of us take for granted what we are actually good at. Don't fall into that trap.
My second piece of advice may seem somewhat counterintuitive. Don't opt for the easy life. As it happens, I did possess many of the basic skills required to be a journalist. These include being able to type very fast and work quickly to deadline, getting to anywhere in the world on time and being able to absorb huge amounts of information on any given day and then forgetting that information almost as quickly. It helps to have a thick skin, the ability to grovel and to chat to anyone about anything and when it comes to sketch writing it also helps to have a sense of humour. If I'd wanted an easy life I could still be now working at The Observer where I began my Fleet Street career in the late 80s. But if I had I almost certainly wouldn't be standing here today.
I eventually became Foreign Editor of that paper but at the age of 40 I decided to go back to writing. It was a huge risk going freelance, but it paid off when I was hired by The Independent and then The Times where I found my journalistic home and stayed for 20 years. I can think of no job quite as initially terrifying or as fun as being Parliamentary Sketch Writer for Her Majesty's Times. That first week in Westminster was petrifying in every way and I will never forget the sheer panic of staring of at that blank screen, but I did settle in and had great years 12 great years in the gothic fun palace as we like to call it at The Houses of Parliament. I have another theory which is that after 10 years or more at anything you get stale in any role, so I was thrilled to move on to write about drama of another kind as the Chief Theatre Critic.
My final piece of advice is to never ever undervalue the power of perseverance. If you really want something don't give up, though you may have to wait until the timing is right. I applied for the job of sketch writer three times before I even got a try out. The first time on The Independent my request was met with mere derision. The second on The Times was a firm and instant no, but the third time I did get a try out and the job. My final short observation is that when it comes to work or life really don't hold a grudge, it just takes up valuable time when you could be having fun.
So, thank you University of Derby. I am thrilled to be the recipient of this. It is an honour to be honoured by you and most importantly, good luck to all of you graduands.