Peter Jones
1999/157 Peter Jones interviewed by Heather Holmes, 22 October 1999
000 Starting work; wages; applying for a job through a commercial apprenticeship; deed of apprenticeship.
035 Terms and conditions of apprenticeship; length of apprenticeship.
045 Training; nature of training; departments employed in
065 Securing a job; hearing about apprenticeships.
087 Applying for a job; family life.
105 Take over of Nelsons and impact on his work; later work in his career at Midlothian County Council.
115 First year work in apprenticeship; hierarchy; names of personnel.
136 Work on ledgers.
144 Miss Doig and work in Accounts Department; nature and range of jobs.
172 Making up wages; steps in procedures; security involved in making up wages; collecting money; distributing wages.
205 Number of people employed in Nelson’s.
211 Making up wages; distribution of wages.
218 Work and organisational skills of Ian Carriline.
242 Age of Ian Carriline; his career progression, including work in London; telling off for putting hands in pockets.
244 Abilities of Ian Carriline; size of finance side.
252 Bookkeepers and their work; work organisation; balancing of cashbooks and work of Miss Blackwood.
265 Age of people in counting house; sex of workers; marital status.
282 Stock control; names of personnel; card system and methods of stock control; systems.
311 Apprenticeships under Thatcher Government.
319 Work of checking sales on titles; counting stock titles; method of collection.
338 Counting stock in the warehouse; work of women in wareroom; packaging books.
354 Personnel in stock control; size of department; names of employees; roles and duties of George Sweeny; ordering print runs; work of A T Cairns regarding printing.
385 Work in sales; devising brochures; making blurbs; other tasks; personnel.
400 Sales staff and their movements after split up of firm; leisure interests of John Lennie.
412 Salesmen’s conferences.
416 Structure of sales department; regional sales people; divisions of regions; work of overseas Nelson houses.
437 Trade; importance of educational books; textbooks; royalties; size of royalties; payment of royalties.
454 Large sums for some royalties; entertaining of authors.
461 Publishing of prestigious titles; books which sold few titles.
466 Classics; Bibles.
472 Work under Ian Carriline; range of work; preparation of z-charts.
490 Ronnie Nelson; attitudes towards him; contact with staff; interest in trains; his relations with Ian Carriline.
506 Record of shares at Company House; numbers of shares; delivering papers to H P Morrison.
574 Takeover by Roy Thomson; reactions to takeover; assurance of job safety; changes and staff losses.
534 Reasons for leaving the company; change in camaraderie.
541 Thomson hierarchy; impact and reactions to takeover.
548 Allan Ramsay; his work.
554 Printing strike of 1959; packing books; crossing the picket line; management people packing books; arrival of Gordon Wells.
597 Social life amongst the office staff; annual dance.
609 Football match.
616 May have been a badminton club; book club; nature of book club.
622 Book library; size; informal nature; collection of pools money.
650 Books at the bookclub; nature of books.
674 Contributions to the book club; wages on apprenticeship; comparison of rate of pay with other companies offering apprenticeships.
706 No memory of interview.
712 Importance of the training to work in later career; reflections on modernity of Nelson’s; efficiency.
728 Borrowing of money to publish Revised Standard Version of the Bible; overdraft; profit.
747 Changes in Nelson’s fortunes.
726 End of apprenticeship; move of employment to Midlothian County Council.
771 Attitudes towards his status of being an apprentice; problems of the apprenticeship.
788 Annual trip.
796 Holidays; dates, length of summer holiday.
812 Length of hours; lunch break and length of them; smoking.
822 Smoking; sharing of cigarettes; work hours at weekends; lunch arrangements.
846 Teabreaks; tea trolley.
860 Costing a book; puzzles; estimators and their work.
876 Relations between different departments; description of the offices.
884 Arrival of first photocopier; nature of adding machines; changing advances in office technology; sophisticated system of stock control; ways of relating to technology.
919 Wareroom work during the strike; nature of work.
926 Packing books; procedures; invoices for book sales; arrangement of workers; packing books into containers.
949 Application of work practices at Nelson’s to later work; application of organisational procedures.
957 Friendly nature of work; personal political motivation; affection towards the work.
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