A special archive of Kate Adie’s career in journalism has been opened in her home of Sunderland.
The collection, cataloguing the life and work of the world-renowned BBC journalist and author, features her notebooks, tapes, letters, pictures, video and even fan mail, which she’s donated.
“My life was shaped by my childhood in Sunderland, and I’ve wanted to show some of the very happy memories, starting at home in Tunstall Park and including two bomb fragments, embedded in our sideboard, which thankfully arrived two years before my appearance. I attended Sunderland High School – and I’m still in touch with a dozen girls from my form – a tribute to our Wearside background,” she explained.
“A reporter does not usually have much time to collect souvenirs so it’s an eclectic collection, but I hope it represents the extraordinarily varied stories I’ve covered, from wars to royal garden parties.”
From her coverage of the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980, through both Gulf Wars, to her work in trouble spots across the world, it also covers her early years working at local radio in Durham and covering the student uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
That led to her appointment as the BBC’s Chief News Correspondent, a role which she held until 2003.
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Last year, the University was awarded grant funding from Archives Revealed, to catalogue all of her work – held by the University Library as part of its Special Collections.
The funding supported the employment of a dedicated Project Archivist, Dr Ellie Clewlow, who has brought together the Kate Adie Collection.
“It is rare to have the opportunity to focus upon a single collection for a sustained period of time – and that focus has brought results,” she added.
“A catalogue is now in place that will connect local community groups, veterans and academic researchers to a collection that links people to moments of their past and offers ways into exploring developments in broadcasting and reporting over the latter part of the 20th century.”
Adie holds honorary degrees from a number of universities and is Honorary Professor of Journalism at the University of Sunderland. Her published works include Kindness of Strangers, Corsets to Camouflage, Into Danger, Nobody’s Child and Fighting on the Home Front.
She won the Richard Dimbleby Award from BAFTA in 1990 and 3 years later she was awarded an OBE. She received a CBE in 2018.
“Kate Adie is one of the most talented journalists and broadcasters of her generation and, as a native of Sunderland, her collection will be of interest both locally and further afield,” said Sir David Bell, Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland.
“By unlocking Kate’s trailblazing career through this collection, we want to enrich the experience of our students and staff as well as foster engagement with a wide range of community groups and researchers in the years to come.”
The University now hopes to work towards digitising key elements of the Kate Adie Collection to create unique digital content packages.
