CLARE AND NIGEL GABRIEL

Diploma

Communications consultant for their own agency

By Daniela Toporek

How did you meet?

Clare: We met on the City course and we’ve been together ever since. There were only about 28 of us, so we shared a lot of classes.

Nigel: When we met, we had to do a monthly Sycom newspaper, and Clare and I were both put on the Sunday Times and that was the start. We managed to get a story about the deliberate overproduction of eggs, and it was the back page lead on the Sunday Times business news with our names on it. So we were pretty excited about that as you can imagine.

What is the most useful skill you learned at City that you still use today?

Clare: For me, it was shorthand. We did the Harry Butler T-line shorthand. And he taught us!

Nigel: I do PR work and I use a lot of shorthand. When I’m interviewing people, it makes them apprehensive that they can’t tell what I’m writing down. But it’s a very useful skill to have.

What’s the most memorable interview you’ve ever done?

Nigel: We worked in the Middle East in the gulf in Bahrain at a newspaper there during the frst Gulf War and South Africa wasn’t allowed to receive oil because of apartheid. Iranians were basically banned from exporting oil and they were illegally sending it to South Africa.We found out through a contact that oil was going out in tankers through the gulf and then rerouted to South Africa. We published the story and nearly got thrown out of Bahrain.

Clare: I ended up doing big stories for the BBC, like the day Princess Diana died. I was running the Radio Wales newsdesk. I started at 6pm and came home at 2am the following day. I used to cover the Hay Festival for BBC Wales – one of the most memorable things about that was seeing Bill Clinton speak right after he stepped down as president which was just amazing. While we were living in Bahrain, Shirley Bassey was doing a concert tour in the Gulf and I was sent back to London by the paper I was working for to interview her. I was very young, very nervous. And I few back frst class which was a treat. I had to interview her in the back of a London taxi. The taxi was going so fast and my notes were fying everywhere. It was a really fabulous interview. It got picked up by all the nationals and TV.

Have you ever experienced sexism within your career?

Clare: Big time. I experienced it a lot.

Nigel: It’s across the board, too. Newspapers, broadcasting, everywhere. It’s dreadful.