Corrie Corfield
"Goldsmiths encouraged you to fly, to express your opinions and your talents without worrying about what anyone else thought."
Main details
"I came in to read the news on the 31 August 1997, four hours after Princess Diana died. That was probably one of the most surreal days I’ve ever spent in the newsroom. Likewise on 9/11, I was heading in to do the overnight shift and heard the first reports of a plane going into the World Trade Centre. I walked into the office to be greeted with the image of the first tower collapsing on TV. After that the normal schedule disappeared and we had to check all programmes for content to make sure that nothing inappropriate or insensitive was broadcast. But there are good news stories too. I read the six o’clock news twenty minutes after the hostage Brian Keenan was released, and the rescue of the Chilean miners in October 2010 had even the most hardened of hacks wiping tears from their eyes.
I grew up at Goldsmiths. It was the first time I’d been away from home and suddenly I was transported from a quiet, country village in Warwickshire to the bustling, dirty, noisy surroundings of London. I thought it was wonderfully exciting. I met people from different backgrounds, different parts of the country. It was the place I became politically aware. Goldsmiths encouraged you to fly, to express your opinions and your talents without worrying about what anyone else thought.
Some of my fondest memories come from my College days. Tutorials on Swift and the Englightenment in Alan Downie’s room with The Grateful Dead playing in the background. Heavy snowfalls. Typing my dissertation on Shakespeare’s Problem Plays with one finger on an ancient Olivetti (no laptops in those days!). Discovering Ibsen, Pinter and John Wilmot. Being chained to my fellow students for a bizarre performance in one of the studios where chicken giblets played a prominent role and we were soaked with buckets of water. Sunny afternoons in New Cross. Making a pint of cider last all night in the student bar!
The BA in English and Drama was a brilliant course with the perfect balance of the academic and the practical. I was surrounded by a vibrant, exciting group of people and always seemed to be laughing. The discussions were lively and stimulating."
