Some words for Guy

I've started this blog in case anyone feels like reminiscing about good times spent with Guy Kewney. Or bad times, with a humorous twist. (And keep it clean, you never know who might be reading it.)

The  aim is to give him some cheerful reading between the bouts of discomfort.

If you can't get your comments up, write to me: david tebbo com - you know where the @ and . belong

Comments

[Peter Fisher]

So, back to the wonderful 70s and 80s, when it all happened. We started this business, Pete and Pam Computers, with an Apple //e and everything that went with it. Of course, it was a time when I read every computer magazine that I could get my hands on. Since I am a compulsive hoarder, I still have some of them.

There was a name that came up so many times, Guy Kewney. Not an easy name to forget. All I really knew about computers was what to buy and how to sell it. Here was a Guy who knew quite a bit more than that.

To me, anyone who at that time wrote in a computer magazine was REALLY famous. At least as famous as anyone on T.V. Computer shows, Comdex, always had an element of 'Spot the Personality' about them. I can't remember how we met, but it wasn't long before we had regular telephone conversations, at the time when you were working on the U.K. Computer Industry's trade rags.

Those were the days! A time to discuss who was doing what, what difference it made. Who was buying who. Who was jumping ship to go off and sail with another company. All before the real advent of the Internet.

My mobile phone was barely that and was the size of two bricks, and weighed as much. I used to stand in shop doors to use it because I was so embarrassed. Remember those days Guy?

Time has moved on, and we've still kept in touch, on and off, especially through Facebook. I've always appreciated your dry wit, incisive comments, and wide understanding of the computer revolution that we've all experienced, in one way or another. I'm so glad that I met you. Peter

[Bruce Sawford]

Guy, Tebbo just got in touch to tell me of your trials and tribulations. We haven't caught up in a while and it got me thinking of those early, mad days when PCW first entered my life. In fact they began with FD suggesting that, having worked in videotape at the BBC, I must be the right person to take charge of a computer magazine... mmmmm... Still, with the infinite help of you guys we did made an early mark.
These days I'm enthusiastically licensing magazines all over the World and trying to prove that, against all odds, I can run a successful company. So far so good but I'm not holding my breath.

[Guy Kewney]

Most memorable interview ever: when I was on Computing, and writing the diary column, "Backbytes." Jane Lott told me to do a piece about the appearance of a stage version of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was due to run for some weeks at the Rainbow theatre in Finsbury Park (former Astoria, now an African church).

I knew of Douglas Adams and knew his status in computer circles, and so asked for his phone number. "You'll have to get that," said Jane, leaving me to my profession. I rang the theatre, which gave me his agent's number. The agent told me to forget it "He's busy. Production starts next week."

I left my phone number on the off-chance.

Five minutes later, the phone rang. "Guy? It's Douglas Adams!"

I began to explain my mission.

"Oh, yes, yes; let's have a drink. Tonight?"

I felt I'd better confess that I wasn't a theatre critic. "I write for Computing," I began, "where I do a weekly column..."

"Yes, yes. I read all your stuff all the time. You're famous, you are..."

He was one of my best friends for the rest of his life. He even took me to a Comic Relief celebration at Grouchos once...

[John Tweddell]

I remember that Guy was always missing the (our) PR parties because he was in the office and finishing the last stories for that edition before it went to bed.

Guy - your trouble is that you took your job so seriously - or is that the issue of being the editor of a magazine - and if so is it worth the few extra pennies a month -

[Richard Clayton]

All this talk of (a) Guy always being reliable, yet (b) Guy missing PR parties to finish off editions, recalls Locomotive Software's "Kewney Days".

They first started because although I had met Guy, the other developers had not, and so we made arrangements for a trip down to Surrey, to meet up -- and then the plan was for us all to sit in the sun and eat a pub lunch ...

... as Chris Hall remembers it, Kewney Days were an excellent institution:

"On a Kewney Day we would take a break and go for a long lunch at one of the better pubs near Dorking. Kewney Days seemed to happen most often on warm summer days when a pub garden was somehow the natural place to be.

Sadly, Guy wasn't able to join us on Kewney Days. On the first two or three, he had planned to come and see us, but was unable to make it. However, we so much enjoyed a Kewney Day that we took to declaring one at very short notice every now and then. Such short notice that, unfortunately, it wasn't practical to invite Guy ... so he tended to miss those as well.

It was, as I said, an excellent institution."

[Steve Gold]

Ah yes, guy - Modem House. One Mr Rose and his kidnapping escapades. I remember being at a Manchester compuyter fair in the late 1980s and was busy slagging off his modems for their red triangles, only to discover he was stood a few feet away. I'm told he was looking daggers at me for a few minutes. I found out later that Rupert, Guy and myself were off his Christmas Card list for our criticisms.

And being crossed off Mr Rose's Christmas Card list was not necessarily a good thing in terms of one's short-term survival back them. Allegedly. Ahem!! :)

[Rose Ross]

Hi Guy,

I always look forward to pitching you a story as I know we'll have a good chat. I particularly enjoy briefings with you always bring so much knowledge and dry wit to the table. I particulary enjoy thinking of one over a pie and a pint outside Olympia. Thanks for being open to these discussions. Another big thank you is for your family I only know Lucy, but it was a surprise (a lovely one!) after a year or so of working with Lucy and her great support of Brain Academy at the Reg, that she was your daughter. Love and best wishes, Rose

[Gkewney]

Have updated the hunky blog: http://hunkymouse.livejournal.com - disgusting, awful taste, no shame, etc etc as usual!

Richard Clayton; you're very nearly right. I did, once, make a Kewney day. I remember being regarded as something of an interloper! - "what's this guy doing here, when we're trying to have an ordinary Kewney Day? Is this an Official Inspection?" - bafflement.

:-)

[Patricia Mansfield-Devine]

Well, I'm only surprised no-one's mentioned Guy's famous screensave. The words 'woman' 'pleasure' and 'Coke bottle' ought to provide a clue. ;) For some reason I can't fathom, there were always a lot of blokes clustered round his desk...

[Gkewney]

The days of creative screen savers seem to be fading, along with the ring-tone business.My favourite was a "Bill The Cat" saver with cartoons of his relationship with "Socks" Clinton.

[David Tebbutt]

Oh dear, we're not heading into the "sack my cook" territory are we?

[Louise Kehoe]

Douglas Adams story is priceless! Great to be "famous" :)Thanks Guy.

I actually think you gave me his book...would have been when I was first in CA.

So on a similar theme...What is the story/column you are most proud of? Come on, we all have one or two we still remember!

Hope tomorrow is a good day.
Love, Louise

[Richard Sarson]

Guy, Your blog is a masterpiece; John Diamond with added medical ingredients.
I know because I have had reason to read a lot of similar blogs over the past year.

[Gkewney]

Thanks, Richard. Nice to know my "chemo brain" still functions for prose creation!

Have an unexpected hospital appointment tomorrow; see hunkymouse blog. I may not be able to post here for a few days, cos they are repeating the endoscopy they did last Thursday, which put me in bed pretty much till today.

I wonder if I should mail Herman the Austrian with the URL of this blog...

[Gkewney]

Louise: I really couldn't point to a "most proud" interview or article.

Some of the hardest work I remember doing, was when you and I were both writing for Electronics Weekly, mid-70s; I was entirely unknown, and learning my trade as reporter and as computer specialist. The Editor decided that a "Micros At Work" series would be a good idea and, from my point of view, it probably was: in-depth, technically detailed descriptions of actual projects carried out by contractors for their clients, using those original weird chips - the 1802, the 9900, the 6800, the 8008 and 8080, and then the 6502 revolution. And the SC/MP from NatSemi, never forget that!

Just finding contractors who would admit to doing projects was a knuckle-scraping challenge; talking them into describing it on the record was a steepclimb, and getting clearance from their clients was often impossible. And the work was really, really tough; having to write it all down, and then go away and find people who'd explain what it meant. I didn't know what a "latch" was. Or a Truth Table. Or Schottky line drivers. Yes, I was a programmer, but the electronics was all new. Peter Fletcher was endlessly patient and helpful. So were you. I got into deep trouble with at least two of those, and it was always a miracle when they appeared in print.

Some of the best work I did, was in the first two years of MicroScope. Nothing particularly stood out in my memory, but there was an overall sense of doing seminal stuff, discovering things nobody else knew or understood, with Peter Jackson, and bringing this information to a brand new industry, who lapped it up.

Those were the days when I was on the phone to California as soon as the West Coast woke up... ringing people like Adam Osborne, who became a very good personal friend (weird chap!) and Gary Kildal and Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and Lee Felsenstein and Steve Jobs and "Captain Crunch" and all the hippies from Palo Alto - ComputerTown USA. I joined the launch of InfoWorld, which was tremendous fun, and then when they were all fired, became part of the second-generation gang: Steve Levy, John Markoff, Michael Swaine, John Dvorak. And I wrote stuff for Creative Computing which wasn't bad.

I can tell you that I am still disappointed by how badly I covered the Amiga launch. I discovered the project ages before anybody, and had excellent sources both sides of the pond - Metacomco in Bristol, who wrote the OS, and the Dragon-loving Jay Miner in Palo Alto, and of course, when Commodore came in, I already knew that bunch of crooks! And yet, somehow, everything I wrote was far short of what I was aiming for, and I never quite felt I got hold of it, or gave my readers what they needed about it.

Probably the most fun story, though, would have been the Million Dollar Software Awards, which I wrote for Jack Schofield at the Guardian.

We had a fetish at MicroScope about awards. We took a pretty hard line about "The Oscars Of Microcomputing" claims, and insisted that in this industry, commercial success was the only "award" that mattered.

A friend applied for a Million Dollar Software Award, and rang me up in triumph. "You'll like this," he assured me, "because it's sales related."

I said: "How much did you pay for the plaque?" and he was insulted. "Well, you're suggesting you just sign the cheque and get it!" he yelled.

"Yes."

He told me to put my money where my mouth was. He helped me. We created an entirely fictitious company "ConSoft" with an altogether imaginary product, DBXV which we implied was some kind of database manager. The form was filled in by the "company secretary" LD(lazy dog) Spencer who was the rat-catcher at my friend's real offices in Hawick. We claimed sales of $15m and sent off the paperwork.

We received virtually instant confirmation of our success in claiming the award, followed within two days by an opportunity to advertise in the Awards Catalogue at advantageous rates, and a chance to attend a black tie celebration in a smart London hotel for another fee, plus a nominal extra 70 quid for the aluminium plaque. Each of us put in 35 quid, and explained that we were going to be on an overseas sales trip on the day of the awards ceremony.

Jack arranged a lovely photo of me and my plaque, and the story ran under the headline "Million Dollar Guy" and got world-wide traction.

Jack never paid my expenses on that one.

[Ian White]

"My best memories, from my own career, will be working on the launch of "MicroScope" with Peter Jackson and Old Grumpy (Ian White, now of Mobile News glory)"

Hey Guy. -it's Old Grumpy here himself! I recently heard about your situation and send you my best wishes.

Anyway - can I trump everyone here by saying how we first worked together in 1974 on "Adweek" in that crappy old building in Waterloo working under" the great Bernard "Groucho Marx" Barnet. (How many IT hacks really know your dark secret that you once worked in advertising before crossing over to the ad trade press?). Yes folks - Guy Kewney was once a "Client".

Then "Adweek folded" and we went our separate ways until meeting up again at that crappy old building in Rathbone Place under the even greater Felix Dennis. We were a little island of unhipness in a sea of coked-up biker journalists and '60's counter-culture freaks.

For some reason Felix thought a marketing press hack would make a good computer journalist and he offered me a job on MicroScope after an interview in his flat involving a full bottle of Cointreau.

I had no idea what a computer was (except it filled a room and had lots of flashing lights).

Remember how we took delivery of those three sewing machines (aka Osbourne Portable Computers) and you introduced me to the delights of CP/M and Wordstar.

I was amazed that the sewing machine could move letters around and I asked you how much further these amazing 'chips' could possibly develop?

You patiently explained that the chips on the computers we were using could carry enough information to store a map of Los Angeles but that one day they would have enough power to store a map of the whole of America. How I laughed!

I suppose the reason I was Grumpy was that i realised I wasn't as clever as you!

Keep the faith.

[Gkewney]

Ah, yes; AdWeek. And before that, of course, we both freelanced for Campaign in the old Warings and Gillow building in Oxford Street. That was (as you say) after I dropped out of being "Promotions Officer" for Iberia Airlines UK. I was a client! - in charge of all Iberia's motor racing sponsorship. Horrible job...

Bernard Barnet taught me the skill of reporting. A great Editor indeed. I wrote my first story for him in Ludgate House, corner of Fleet Street."Er, Guy..." said his voice with an implacable steel, in it, "have you ever been taught to write a news story?"

I considered bluffing. I dropped that. "No."

"Ah. Good, good; if you'd said yes, I'd have said 'you're fired' right away. Come HERE!"

That building had a hydraulic lift. Press the button for your floor, and it sounded like you'd flushed the bog...

No, Ian, actually if I recall, you were grumpy because you were inbetween girlfriends! :-)

Been there, done that, but it was a long time ago.Mary and I have been married 38 years, now.

I have to say: it's beeen wonderful watching your utter dominance of the mobile trade market. An excellent title, beautifully run. You should be proud...

[Ian White]

Thanks for your kind words. Who would ever have predicted the mobile industry would have converged with the computer industry to the extent that it has? All these years later and I'm STILL writing about Apple re-inventing everything that has gone before and leaving the big names in the dust (Hello Moto). Remember, if Steve Jobs can beat his little bout of ill health ...

[Jenny Cowell ( Bacon)]

The Poquet PC in '89 - Guy said looked like scrabble letters had been thrown at the keyboard - I liked that and was true. Always proud that on kissing cheeks friendship with Guy - esp in front of my management ;-)

[Alan Burkitt-Gray]

I started as news editor of Computing in September 1980, just after Alan Cane left for the FT. I also inherited Backbytes but my consolation was that Guy wrote a regular page on personal computing -- something for me not to worry about as I, an ex-electronics journo, wondered what all this computer stuff was all about.
It was a great team, in that squalid room in Frith Street, with the air so thick with cigarette smoke that you could hardly see across the room by 4pm on Monday, press day.

[Jane Bird]

Being the first person to read your esteemed column when I became editor of PCW in the early 1980s was one of the job’s big treats. It was amusing, well-informed and often controversial – as in the case of: “How to copy Acorn diskettes”! And you were always so charming when you dropped it in to the Oxford St office some time after the deadline that nobody could be very cross.

Since then, when venturing out to press events and PR parties, it has always been a pleasure to spot your familiar good-humoured presence across a sea of increasingly youthful and unknown faces. Some fun to be had after all…

[Alikelman]

It was back in the late 70s when I called Guy up at Computing. I had an idea for a new Bill in Parliament to give explicit copyright protection for computer programs as literary works. Guy looked me over - in those days I wore a bowler hat and had a moustache (rather like that worn by Peter Mandelson). Guy commissioned me to write a feature on the topic - which got taken up all over the place including in the Economist. Computing in those days had a big photography budget and Guy sent around a photographer who took a photo of me in the car park outside my then Chambers in Lincoln's Inn. In the final printed edition they made it a full page photograph. My fellow barristers cut the page out and put it on the main notice board with the label "Would you buy a used car from this man?" since I had a slight "Arthur Daly" look about me. I never lived it down.

[Nick Spencer]

Some twelve years ago in the heady days of PR and IT journalism, I was arranging yet another press trip to Ieper, Belgium. Via Eurostar, Guy was to travel with another well known journalist (who shall remain nameless). The timing was tight, and for various reasons, the two journalists were to travel alone, to be met by a PR rep in Ieper. Guy and Journalist X were booked on the first train out of Waterloo, at the slightly anti-social hour of 6am, if I remember correctly.

Their tickets would be clearly marked and awaiting their arrival at the ticket office. A simple show of their passports, and they would collect the tickets, pass through security/ check-in to board the train. They had even met before, and had each other’s contact details. Now, what could go wrong with that...?

Journalist X arrives before Guy. Cheerfully shows his passport, grabs an envelope and takes out his ticket. He then duly goes through check-in and waits in the departure area.

Soon after, Guy arrives, and went to collect his ticket. Big problem - Journalist X has unwittingly collected both tickets! With time ticking away, Guy explains the situation to the ticket clerk. Thirty minutes pass, calls to Journalist X’s mobile are met with a voicemail message, tannoy announcements are ignored, and the staff tell Guy another ticket cannot be issued; and without one, he cannot pass through to departures, nor board the train.

Fuming, Guy misses his train and returns home. Nine am. My office phone rings. “Bloody idiot. That buffoon left with my ticket!”. The next ten minutes are filled with Guy’s tale of incompetent Eurostar staff, and how ridiculous it was that Journalist X hadn’t realised that Guy hadn’t arrived, and checked the envelope containing Guy's ticket.

Yet not once did Guy lay any blame on me. The mark of a true true gent...He even managed to laugh it off.

Lesson learned? Never send a journalist unaccompanied anywhere!

Guy – we’re all thinking of you. Keep strong.

Warmest regards
Nick Spencer

[Gino Mainolfi]

When I was a young and wet-behind-the-ears PR, I must admit to being slightly intimidated by Guy Kewney. Imposingly tall, articulate, quick-witted and phenomenally knowledgeable, there would always be a slightly awkward moment and uncomfortable shuffling in seats at a press conference when Guy raised his hand to ask the ‘Kewney Question’; for everyone in the room knew - PR and client included - that within less than three concise questions or statements, Guy had stripped out the puff, and dived right into the crux of the product or service being announced. He’d spot the flaws, identify the area that hadn’t been thoroughly thought out, or the apparent contradiction with an existing strategy, product, or technology standard.

Despite the many "I’ll get back to you on that" responses to his questions, it’s important to understand that Guy wasn’t being deliberately provocative. He was rightly doing his job to an impeccable standard, and I think to some degree is responsible for causing PRs - and their clients - to rethink the credibility and validity of a statement or messages before launching them to the press. I don’t think I’m the only PR who now considers the "Kewney Question" as a litmus test of credibility, when reviewing or drafting material for the press.

Guy wasn’t being intimidating; far from it. And that is never more apparent when meeting him, or chatting cheerfully on the phone, when his politeness and respect for the other party he was talking to - which means a lot to PRs - really stood out.

Guy - you’ve probably influenced more people than you realise, and I’m happy to consider myself one of them.

[Davey Winder]

Guy, I'm not sure where to start to be honest. I guess I probably first encountered you as a cocky newcomer (me, that is) busting my way into the tech hack scene back in 1990 or thereabouts. I don't have fond memories of your work on PCW or earlier, as I never really bothered reading tech magazines before I started writing for them :)

My first real memory of you would probably be on Cix and the 'adult' conf with the exchange of porn etc. I attended various fetish clubs where I bumped into many a CIXen and many a tech editor, although never you I hasten to add. But the way you dealt with the whole piss poor treatment by the Daily Mail (I think it was) impressed me greatly.

Not as much as I was impressed when we actually met for the first time and I discovered a quiet, thoughtful and really bloody nice chap. Indeed, we went on many a press trip together and although you probably never realised it I kind of adopted you as a replacement for my recently deceased Dad at the time.

Fondest memory is probably when you and I, for whatever unlikely reason, became the de facto satellite comms experts in the UK and so were invited to NASA on a VIP trip to see a space launch. I recall the partying and the science with equal wonder, especially getting the chap from the government so pissed he ended up with a traffic cone on his head and his trousers rolled up at that stupidly lavish gangster/Chicago themed party in the Disneyland hotel we were staying at. The one with the cigar bar, where we invented cocktails and told the barman they were very popular in the UK.

Guy, there is a very good reason that you are held with such high regard in this industry of ours - and that is simply that you are that rarest of beasts, a fucking nice bloke...

[Spwalker]

My relationship with Guy goes back to the early '90s when I worked in IBM's PC Company. This constitutes in my mind the Good Old Days of Tech PR when the technology was still pretty much inchoate. There were two consequences: in those heady days where we all had more time and more budget, Guy was one of the few journalists whom I would willingly take out for lunch in order to be able to listen to his views on the PC industry to keep myself educated on current thinking on hot topics; and secondly, Guy had the highest-developed ability to take a working loan PC and make it not work - the much vaunted "Kewney Chaos effect". I would like to thank Guy for (a) his insights and (b) the opportunity to dine in some of the better restaurants in London (IBM would never have worn the bills if I had not been doing important PR work).

[Gkewney]

It was the News of the World farce, and one of the worst times of my life. Nothing I could do about it except wait for the memory to fade.Almost not a single word of the story was either in context, or accurate, and Duncan Campbell consulted his libel lawyer, and he gave me advice:

"You would almost certainly win an action. But the paper knows its law, and will take steps to minimise its costs. In the interim, it could be easily two to three years when it would 'open season' on you and everybody who ever knew you. Ex-girlfriends would have been asked questions about 'what's he like in bed?' and offered large sums for any answers. Your family would be followed, haunted, and investigated. Any and all indiscretions would emerge in the most salacious detail, whether true or not. And if any of them worked with kids, the story would go front page. And...'

Ghastly.

[Richard Sharpe]

An abiding memory is dragging you across the newsroom at Computing by the finger to try and get you to phone people and get a story. Hope the finger healed. Still at CIX which shows my age. From Shrape!

[Andy West]

Guy -- You have been a technology titan from the earliest days of my career in PR -- dare I say from the mid-80's!

So many occasions to recall, but one I'll highlight is a trip with XTree (remember them) down to Cowes for day on a Round The World yacht. No wind but plenty of drink and great banter. I think Mr Tebbut and Mr Banks might also have been on that trip.

Over the years, our paths have crossed many times, most recently when we discussed Friction.tv and your possible appearance as the Technology Guru. I always enjoy our chats and the slightly incorrect gossip about who's hot, who's not etc! :)

So my thoughts are with you through this difficult time.

[David Tebbutt]

For the record, I wasn't on the Cowes trip.

However, I was in the garage yesterday, clearing out stuff and I found my notebook from my first day on PCW - 28th June 1979 and there, in the middle, were the words 'Guy Kewney'. Probably the first occasion I wrote his name.

(I'm pretty sure it was there because he'd just asked Portia Isaacson an awkward question.)

That was the same day, incidentally, that I realised I knew so little about this 'microcomputer' business and journalism (I was still officially a project manager at ICL) that I bottled the Adam Osborne interview and asked Guy to do it.

Happy days.

[Simon Meredith]

Guy was the reason I once spoke briefly to the then plain ‘Mr’ later to become ‘Sir’ Alan Sugar. Guy was the only journalist Sugar trusted. Guy knew everyone who was worth knowing in the business – and out of it for that matter. I was always in complete awe of that fact that he actually knew Douglas Adams! Frankly, I still am.
Guy’s two days a week in the office (Friday and Monday), were the only reason why PC Dealer ever had any decent industry stories in the early days. Working with Guy was also one of the big plusses of working on the paper and Guy always had time for the greener hacks amongst us who were often slightly baffled and dazzled by it all.
I myself learned a great deal from you Guy and will always remember working with you fondly, as will many others, I am sure of that. They were heady times – and a lot of fun. When you think about it, we had quite a bunch of characters on Dealer team. Guy though was always our star player.
Even to this day I still quote some of Guy’s aphorisms when talking to people about how they should (or should not) deal with the IT media. My favourite I think is “There’s no such thing as ‘off the record’”. We got into a little bit of hot water from time to time, but they were good times and I’m glad I was there.

[Farmbrough.wordpress.com]

Like many of my generation, I remember first reading Guy when I was about ten years old in the ONLY entertaining pages of PC World (in the days when that wasn't a shop) Informative, educational, and always funny. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to actually talk to him on cix during the 1990s. again we found the same intelligence and wit he'd shown in his articles, but also his humanity. I am sorry he is not well, but he will always be thought of with affection and admiration, particularly by me.

[Grahame Davies]

Having avidly read one of the foremost computer journos at the time (early 1990s) and shared conferencing exchanges on CIX, my first real encounter with Guy was when he considered my (there were 4 founders) company (Demon Internet) for a PCW award. I still have the magazine! Guy could see the great appeal and possibilities for the Internet, probably more than we could at the coal face. The software we used was a hacked together set of shareware with a front end. "The software is terrible" he wrote. He wasn't wrong but not the greatest accolade, especially that given Demon Systems was a software company from which Demon Internet came. But right on the money as ever. I'll have to get the article out to see how close his predictions came true (1993 I think it was). We met a few times more in the 90s and I have always held him in great respect for his diligence and professional approach coupled with a wry sense of humour.

[Scott]

I remember attending numerous press luncheons when I was with InfoWorld, listening to many softball or inane questions, but knowing if Guy was in the room, he would eventually let fly a real question or two for those paying the lunch bill. And then everything was all right.

[Alan Burkitt-Gray]

And that's why I hate one-to-ones so much. One poor bugger from the company spends a day getting glazed answering the same questions from a series of us hacks, and we don't get the pleasure of hearing Guy and his like (not that there are many of them) asking the really sensible questions.

[Lyle Closs]

How come the early 90s seems like ancient history? My first memories of Guy are when I lobbed at Lexicon PR in 94 with the much-missed Lynne Thomas and the ever ebullient Annabel Hunt. More than one long evening at La Rocchetta on Clerkenwell Green - but then that was where we always ate, and Guy cheerfully charging into the office and demanding coffee. I am sure I must have talked to Guy about IT at some stage, but its the social occasions that stayed in mind. Sunny afternoons in Farringdon, the sun struggling through the big, always dusty windows. Annabel and Lynne trying to outdo each other in giving Guy a hard time (or indeed any journalist game enough to drop by). Finally, when I had already turned 40, I was getting some proper PR training.

[Tony Westbrook]

Guy Kewney? An Editorial Fellow of high repute: One to be relied upon to ask the killer question still forming in the rest of our minds; to offer his copy predictably late (though as we moved together through monthlies, weeklies and then online, this got progressively less painful I fancy...); a person you simply cannot get cross with; a commentator of huge importantance to his many readers; a courageous wearer of both sandals and socks (or was that Rupert?); the submittor of two years' expenses in a single go; the owner of a personal chaos field able to reveal the single catastrophic weakness in a thousand component precision engineered new product... Must I really go on?

Guy, I have enjoyed working with you though the (many) phases of ZD, have often appreciated your experience and wisdom and can only wish you all possible luck on your present tough journey.

[Mike Bennett]

I joined a conferencing thing called CIX some years ago, and soon found myself in a forum where people were slowly losing their religion. One of the most thought provoking people there was a guy who was just called guy. That should have been a clue.

So Guy, you are one of those who helped me lose the faith and become the fully paid up humanist I am today. I'm eternally grateful if that's the right adverb ;-) You have been a constant presence throughout CIX, cutting down to size all manner of nonsense and ballyhoo, always politely and patiently but never letting anyone get away with clumsy and untenable thinking, and often finding something better to put in its place. Along the way you uncovered a bunch of interesting insights, some of which I will be working through for years to come, as I'm sure will many others.

I knew about your column but never quite realised what a legend you were outside of CIX until I mentioned you to one of my more computer-savvy friends and saw his reaction. It was good to finally meet you in person the other week, after what seems like years of trying to be the same place at the same time. Apart from being at opposite ends of the table at one of Mark's restaurant outings it seemed that one or other of us wasn't there. But at the same time you were always there on line with a witty reply or an intelligent insight. I look forward to seeing more of your thinking on line for as long as you can keep it up. Even after that, you'll always be there.

[Iain Laskey]

Mike Bennnett has just beaten me to it. Much as I've always hugely admired you Guy from the journalistic aspect, it is your inciteful and thoughtful commentries in the various religious and philisophical discussions on CIX that I value most. The current epic one in the jokes conf (of all places) being a case in point. You seem to have a knack of teasing out the truth buried in 'hot potato' topics. I have always hoped in my 18 years on CIX that one day I might meet you so I could shake your hand and thank you for the thousands of CIX messages marked K for keep that have the moniker 'guy' at the top but this woefully inadequate message will have to suffice.

[Charles McLellan]

Guy: you really did claim expenses from ZD for 'wear and tear on socks' following a trade show didn't you? Been relating that one for years...

[Rob Jones]

I still haven't had the privilege of meeting Guy in person but, like Hypercube, I met Guy as guy on Cix. Unlike Hypercube, I knew who he was.

As a long time hard-core techie, I had been familiar with Mr K from the mid seventies and always appreciated the type of information he gave us. As a back-room techie it was interesting to know who were the real industry movers and shakers who were the real industry bullsh*tters. And I didn't envy his endless junkets around the globe. Oh no. Not at all.

HIs ability to pop over-blown egos (including mine on more than one occasion) was masterful. Although I have to wonder why he bothered to pop the ego an unknown like me :-)

We have had endless discussions about religion, some of them quite heated on occasion (POP). I think we now understand each other rather better than we did. I don't know if (I only believe that) there is a God. If there isn't, Guy can leave happy in the knowledge that he gave everything his best shot. If there is, He will know that Guy gave everythng his best shot and I'm sure that is enough.

By way of anecdote, I will never forget, and will always be grateful for, finding Guy (and a mutual e-friend called Anne) on the other end of the wire(less) when I fired up my laptop during a particularly tedious spell in hospital about six years ago. His cheerfulness and charming nature made me feel much more content to be where I was. I am awestruck by his fortitude and resolution in the face of this awful illness. I pray that he can make the most of his remaining time with us and be happy that he has touched many lives for the better.

Oh, and Guy, I still want that beer. Later, OK?

[Manek]

>I am awestruck by his fortitude and resolution in the face of this awful illness.

You could not have put it better. Guy: here's to our next encounter - whenever and wherever that may be.

[Suz Olliver]

I mentioned this blog to Vik and suggested he might want to add some memories; "My memories of time spent with Guy are generally a bit fuzzy".
I have a few but they generally start with the inside of a pub and end shortly after.

[Phil Manchester]

Feel a little late to add this - but I only found out about the blog today. Lots of folk I know here too... and good wishes to them. Guy was the first person I met when I strolled out of the computer industry into journalism in 1978. I arrived in Computing's Dean Street offices on April 2 1978 and Guy was hunched over his desk. "Hi - I'm the new boy - where do I sit?" I asked. "Over there," he replied -" now shut up, I'm busy."
What seemed like an eternity later, Guy looked up and smiled. "Sorry, I was working out my expenses - the only creative writing I get to do around here."
I was smitten and remained so. Through the next few months, as I learned how to be a hack, Guy gave me words of encouragement. Only the world can judge whether this was a good idea - but I for one will always be grateful.

[Pat Bitton]

While my memories of actual events when I was learning the software biz in the UK are more than a trifle spotty, there are a select few folks whose names are irrevocably tied to my learning that I was really more cut out to be an industry gossip than a PR person. So thank you Guy (and Tebbo, and Banksie, and Lettice) for redirecting my career into the more fulfilling area of "communication". A word to which I apply an appropriate definition, depending on whether I am trying to earn a living or just on a lark. Sending you peaceful thoughts from the redwoods.

[Justine Jones]

I have only 'met' Guy on Cix in the peewheet conference and occasionally in the fairly quiet writers' conference. I have always found him a thoughtful, compassionate and sensitive soul, even if sometimes I can't quite follow his arguments in peewheet!

I remember the comforting post he wrote for me one day when Rob was working away and I said I felt a bit lonely. It was so kind of him. Thanks again for that Guy.

Must look at the cix/jokes thread to see what he's been up to there.

The livejournal gives a window on Guy's world that it has been a privilege to look through these last few months.

Although I haven't met him, I think of him very fondly; and I wish him the best that can be.

Justine

[Rupertg]

I've been holding off from writing here, because I just can't get my thoughts about Guy in order. That seems a poor excuse.

Guy The First, late 70s/early 80s: a young Rupert obsessed with technology, growing up in Plymouth, discovers Personal Computer World in WH Smiths on Royal Parade. (There is not much else going on in Plymouth in the late 70s/early 80s.)

PCW is an amazing thing. It has loads of fab technology, and an entire menagerie of Wise Beings writing about said tech. Desperate Dave Tebbutt. Banksie (before his move into graffiti). And some cat called Guy Kewney.

This was all terribly exciting, and got even more so when I managed to save up for a ZX81 kit from Uncle Clive. By then, there were things like PCN, What/Which/Yawn Computer, as well as the specialist titles, but PCW remained head and shoulders above the lot of 'em. And in the PCW jungle, Guy was clearly the alpha male. He knew everyone and everything, but still had that innocent-abroad tone which so effectively defused the hype.

Then I ended up in London with a Spectrum, a VTX5000 and a bad telephone bill... and after a while (to gloss over an awful lot) discovered Cix.

Guy the Second, 1985-ish: So, there I was on Cix, getting my head around social media (I believe others have discovered that since). That Guy Kewney was everywhere in the UK computer industry. He was the chap Uncle Clive chewed his beard over (and, later, I discovered, inspired similar dental action in Alan Sugar) . He was talked about in awed tones by other journalists. He knew Douglas Adams.

And then I left a message on Cix, I forget where, and Guy answered. Yes, THE Guy Kewney. Left an answer. To my message.

OMFG.

Cix was... well, vastly engaging back then. After I'd worked out that Guy was in fact probably mortal (damn), I fell in with him and other bad sorts online and spent far, far too much time talking about computers and religion and music and drinking and sex and... hm, nothing much has changed.

I can't remember when I actually met him in the flesh for the first time, But I remember lots of the online times - the cix/adult mania, the rise and fall of Demon, so many intensely important fallings-out that mean nothing now.

Guy the Third, 1992: And then, after lots of peripheral encounters, finally on the same title as him - PC Mag. Which led to all sorts of fun - Comdex with the man, and watching him talk Michael Dell into talking us into the Spencer Katt Party. Togas. The curious inverse hierarchy about which of us was most hated by production for Adamsian approaches to deadlines. His theory was that if he was very, VERY late with his copy it was a Good Thing because it meant that nobody had the time to mess it up before press. His further theory that he was actually never late with his copy.

There is no record of the number of times he helped me out, but I wouldn't be here for at least five different reasons if it wasn't for Guy.

That was the work side. The personal side... I doubt anyone who's known Guy has escaped the perplexity, infuriating teeth-grinding frustration and sheer essence du D'oh that the man induces in all who draw near. Nor do I know anyone who, having experienced all that, counts it other than a price worth paying, and cheap at that. (The closer you get, the higher the price... and the more worthwhile.)

Guy drives everyone who knows him mad, and then has the chutzpah to wonder out loud and at length why the world is so full of mad people. The man has not a hadron of malice in his soul, and is clearly on the wrong planet.

Glorious.

(Tony: I NEVER wear socks with my sandals. That's Guy. Wrong planet, or what?)

[Andrew Brown]

Rupert's lovely piece echoes my own hesitations about writing here. I suppose I knew Guy through his PCW stuff first: that strange and giddying sense that people were discovering a new way to be human which was, however absurdly, the real enchantment of the "micro revolution". Then I must have met him and Rupert on cix at about the same time in the late Eighties, and in the flesh shortly thereafter. I remember his arrival at a couple of our parties; the inexhaustible, iron-willed melancholy; the generosity with knowledge and advice. This may have been the wrong planet for him, but we all here gained by it.

[Fiona Corless]

I'm coming to this a bit late, having only discovered the blog today. The dark-haired girl from Ireland, who swore regularly about the PC Direct sales people, didn't make an impact on the computing world, however she has very, very fond memories of Ziff Davis and Guy's smiling face. Thank you for sharing your knowledge so willingly with an upstart like myself, but above all, thank you for being a kindly father-figure in a vast, confusing sea of bits and bytes. Love, sparkles and a little bit of mischief from the Emerald Isle.

[Patricia Kenyon]

Dearest Guy greetings form Poole.
The dinghy is in the outhouse, asleep . I think the last time I was in it with you was because you were able to keep calm when I was on the water, unlike poor Peter who turned into Captain Bligh.
We lit a candle in Mary's beautiful sconce last night. My brother Paul and his family were here, and we all drank a toast to you Guy.
we'll be back in London soon
love and God Bless
Patricia & Peter

[Wendy M. Grossman]

Unlike so many here, I had no idea what PCW was or who Guy was in the scheme of things when I met him. My first memory of him really (other than subbing his copy one time) was the day I found him, very shaken, at a desk in VNU because the Mail had done a scandal-mongering job on cix, with Guy as chief scandaleer. So to me he's always been a rather more vulnerable than godlike figure.

More in common with others, though, he has always been part of my landscape in technology writing.

I'm saying this only because I can't do what I'd really like to do, which is upload a pic of self wearing my I AM THE *REAL* GUY KEWNEY T-shirt.

wg

[Louise Kehoe]

Guy,
Wonderful posts here. To see how many people you inspired and mentored is fantastic. Such a wonderful legacy.

To add one more. I think that if you had not cajoled me into writing something soon after I landed in U.S. (some 30+ years ago), I might never have continued in journalism.

Thinking of you.

Love, Louise

[Richard Clark]

Pretty sure one of our first meetings was at a conference on the future of personal computing, where I was chairing a panel. I remember Bill Gates was on the panel, but he wasn't anywhere near as interesting as Guy. Guy and I are still friends - but looking at this series of posting, I wonder how thick the book of birthdays is now.
Still its great that someone still remembers mine, outside the family. I do remembers staying over at Guys, and going to the loo in the morning only to find out it was immediately above the kitchen - and the ceiling had been removed. Through the floorboards, you could just see the cooker, with breakfast on the trot. Talk about an incentive to aim accurately!
Not the only memory - they are all priceless mate. And your sense of humour, whilst sorely stretched of late, will stay with many of us for ever...
Richard

[Kelvyn Taylor]

For those who want to read the Guy of yore in action, I've uploaded a PDF of the first issue of PCW on Google Docs (no sign-in needed).

http://tinyurl.com/yhyha54

I created this for the 30th anniversary issue in 2008 - Guy's first column is on page 14.

Kelvyn

[Simon_Lucy]

So this could take a while... My first knowledge of Guy was reading Datalink while stumbling through a TOPS course in Liverpool on IBM 360 DOS VS + Power (you got value for money in course names then). I can't say that Guy enlightened me much at the time, very little did then but I did look forward to reading Datalink each week, well his bit and Bill Tidy.

Then later working for ACT, Apricot and really at Tandon I got to know him a bit more and it was always a pleasure to share some nugget or other knowing it would get used properly and in context.

Over the intervening years we have bumped together at places and times like Cebit and such and he has always had the good manners to remember who I am.

He even remembered who I am recently and I'm sorry we've not got round to having that call we promised one another so far.

Which reminds me I should pummel James Minotto to comment if he hasn't already. it would not do to not have the rent-a-mouth of the 80's join in as well.

[Bruce Everiss]

It was Guy's articles in Computing, about 1977/8, that kick started the whole microcomputer industry in Britain. They created a sense that something very big and very special was just about to happen. Many people, myself included, were inspired to get on board. Sinclair, Acorn, Amstrad etc were just children of something Guy created. The Personal Computer World days saw the realisation of what Guy had seen coming. So today we have a whole pile of industries where nothing existed 35 years ago.
Guy was always very sociable and very supportive. We had meals, met at shows and launches, he invited me to his home. Mostly we gossiped on the phone, he knew a vast amount more than ever appeared in print!
Guy has lived in exciting times and been a major player in events. Very many of us owe him a lot.

[Tim Biller]

I got to know Guy through CIX and mutual friends like David Morton and Jon Honeyball and I used to sneak out from my first proper job in IT - Mac support at News International - and have long silly lunches with him in Wapping.

I followed his every word to the letter and still do to this day.

[Peter Judge]

Best wishes Guy.

I just read your comment from a few days back: "pretty much what I'd expect in the final stages of a terminal illness: a sense of fading purpose, a sense of reducing energy, and a sense of withdrawal."

That will live with me for a long while: the ability to utter those words, and the tone of your typed voice is yet another of the reasons we all love you.

I hope you get this message - and I'm wishing you all the best.

Peter Judge

[Iain Thomson]

I could go on chapter and verse on this topic but here are a few highlights:

Copy – back when I was doing my apprenticeship in the trade I was writing on accountancy of all things and was having real doubts about my chosen career, so much so that I left it and went into PR for a bit. But reading your copy it was clear that while the subjects weren't glamorous they were both interesting and tremendous fun to write about. It was something I set out to do myself, by hook or by crook.

CIX – I freely admit to being very jealous of your three letter address – it was the height of geek cred on the board. We met for the first time after you asked if anyone had a spare Palm sync cable and as I happened to have one lying around we arranged to meet up at the OS/2 drinking club in Soho and exchange it for a pint. It turned out to be several and I staggered out some time later more determined than ever to work with such people.

Cleanliness – Cleanliness may be next to godliness in some people's books but not in yours (or mine). The last desk you had at Ziff should have been preserved for history. It was piled chest high with press releases from the dawn of time and in the future archaeologists should have had the chance to pull apart the compressed matter to find releases for SCSI connectors or the launch of the 486. It drove Facilities management, with their clean desk policy, absolutely nuts and that's another reason to remember it with pleasure.

Questions – One of the key things I learned from you was it's not what you ask but how you ask it that gets the best results, but that no matter what you should always question. Sure, we might have disagreed on some issues but arguments were always sharp and too the point, just like press conference questions.

Sailing – It's still a niggle that for all our mutual love of sailing we never went out on the water together. Competition for on the water jollies was tight but it was always fun to catch up on a Monday with the latest news of the Vendee and Ellen McArthur, cats verses tris and whether the Moth class would actually work in anything less than a gale. I'm out on the water a lot more now I'm in the Bay Area and wondered what you would make of the America's Cup coming to San Francisco, as was made possible last month.

Lateness – There was a kind of greatness to your lateness, or even just the excuses for it. You still have the second best excuse for coming in late I've ever heard – a bus had soaked you from the knees down with a splashed puddle and you'd had to go home and change. It was only beaten by another PC Magger who turned up to work at 2:30pm with the excuse “Sorry I'm late, I was doing mushrooms until five this morning and couldn't sleep.” You know who you are...

[Trish Devine]

Dear Guy. Thanks for being a champ, for lunch at L'Escargot with Jamie Whatisface (as a sub, I didn't get many perks), for seeing me safely onto the bus in Aldgate, for not strangling me for chainsmoking in the office (which you hated and complained about constantly while I ignored you). For always being nice, basically. Good luck on the journey. xx Trish

[marcus austin]

Like everyone else I owe a lot to Guy. But being stupid I never really realised it until way after I should. Back in 1978 I remember buying my first copy of PCW and reading it from cover to cover. For the next ten years PCW was my lifeline to the big exciting world of personal computers, and it was also the inspiration I needed to put two fingers up at all my mates and my teachers, and to go to a completely different sixth form from the one everyone recommended, just so I could do a computing A level, because PCW and Guy said it was the future.

Little did I know that 14 years after that reading my first copy of PCW, it would lead to the situation of me standing in front of Guy Kewney in Ziff towers, listening to him explaining to me - very politely - why I wasn’t going to get my copy, just yet. But of course when I did get it, 10 seconds before the really and truly, really final, final, final, final deadline was up, it was perfect, as always, and that’s why I kept asking him to write more.

Yet, I still didn’t connect that the annoying – yet polite – Guy who didn’t get his copy in, and the Guy I argued with in the pub about bits, bytes and bollocks was the same Guy, nor that the Guy I got horrendously drunk with at Comdex year-after-year was also the same Guy. Or that the really irritating Guy at every press conference you ever attended, who always asked the really annoying questions – very politely - that you wished you really had the guts to ask, was also the same Guy.

Thank you for being irritating and inspiring, and just being Guy, and I’m sorry I was too stupid to connect the two, perhaps I would have treated you with a bit more reverence if I’d known. I’m not worthy!!

Marcus

[Mary Kewney]

I want to thank everyone who has posted here. Your words meant a lot to Guy (and to myself and our daughters).

I am really sorry to report here that Guy died at twenty to one this morning (8th April). Right until this afternoon he had been peaceful and calm. He had a nasty fall this afternoon and I think that unsettled him tremendously. The nurses put him on a morphine pump at about 5pm yesterday. We were lucky to have a wonderful nurse from Marie Curie with us this evening and she looked after him(and us) really well. I have one of my sisters staying with me and one of my nieces. Lucy and Alice are both coming here tomorrow.

Guy died with dignity. He was a wonderful man and I will miss him terribly.

[David Banes]

A reminder to us all that while the industry is still young the 'Henry Fords' are leaving us...

[Ian White]

RIP Guy. I count myself lucky to have worked with you.

[James Blake]

I was interviewed a couple times last year by Guy for articles on cloud computing.

It was really weird being interviewed by someone who I had grown up reading his articles in PCW and who had been such a massive influence on me working in the field of computing.

Guy was a lovely bloke and a massive force in UK tech journalism - he'll be greatly missed.

[David F. Cox]

Guy was a regular read.
Sadly I once featured as a player in a Guy article, under the byline "A Fule" (deserved). Guy was taking on a major manufacturer that was both incompetent and behaving very badly. He stood up for the customers.

[Bruce Lynn]

Guy was my first UK friend 'in the business' when I arrived here nearly 20 years ago with Kenan Systems. I needed a speaker for our first User Group meeting and asked around for someone 'edgy, insightful, and colourful.' Guy delivered in spades and we struck up a close and immediate friendship.

I soon moved to Microsoft/UK where Guy was shunned as a 'Microsoft baiter'. Microsoft PR mostly wanted to invest time and attention to those who would deliver positive copy. Yet, I continued our annual Yacht Club lunches where we explored all manner of issues and ideas in good natured banter. Contrary to being a Microsoft 'baiter' he held Microsoft in high regard and was always open to hearing the other side (most of those unattributed Microsoft quotes that gave the MS view were from me).

He request that our last Yacht Club lunch in October had to be moved to his 'local club'. A lovely public sailing facility on the Stoke Newington reservoir that he was instrumental in initiating. We sat in the sunshine watching a class of rambunctious youngsters bobble about in dinghys while musing about the great and good. I will dearly miss such a kind-hearted soul who never failed to spark new ideas and rouse good humour.

[Sheridan Williams]

Oh dear I knew Guy well, I met him when he started as news reporter for Personal Computer World about the same time I contributed articles, circa 1983.
In 1984 he wrote a news feature in Computer Weekly with the headline "BEEBUG boss Sheridan Williams forced to buy a Ferrari".
A really nice guy (pun intended), he will be missed.

[Superglaze]

Guy was the only person I've ever known to complain that there was too much sitting space available in the Mobile World Congress press room! It made me laugh then, and it brings a smile to my face now. He will be missed.

[Max Cooter]

I'm a bit late with my contribution - but then, being late with copy is an appropriate tribute for Guy.

I held off because, unlike so many of the other people on these pages, I never actually worked with Guy. Like most people in the IT journalism biz, I was in awe of Guy and always considered that getting Guy to write for your publication was the acme of success.

When I set up Techworld and was casting around for freelancers, I finally got to use Guy and, needless to say, his copy was always interesting and perceptive. We had lunch together as we discussed other ways to proceed - a very jolly lunch, but, sadly, the plans came to nothing.

I wished I'd had the chance to use him more - our paths crossed only briefly - but for the influence he's wielded, his erudition and his refusal to take vendors at face value, he'll always be much respected.

RIP Guy - you'll be much missed.

[Jennifer Perry]

It was such a lovely day. I was thinking and chatting to Guy all day. I was telling him about plans my plans to take Mary out soon.

Not sure if he can hear me but I'm sure he would approve.

[Bob Apollo]

Guy, the world was much richer for your presence, and much diminished by your passing. At least you've been wearing the appropriate footwear all this time.

I remember hiring you once to speak at a conference. When I told one of my industry buddies he said "you must be brave!" and I'm glad I was.

You were funny, acerbic and your joke about the shuttle cock shocked my US colleagues into a stunned silence, as did many of your other remarks.

Needless to say, the audience loved it - as your audiences have always loved you. Adios, amigo...

[Ken Welsby]

A great loss - and an example to everyone who seeks to shine a light on technology business.
In the 1980s I relied on Guy and Tebbo as the two guys who could be relied on to point me in the right direction - trying to find a way through the smoke and mirrors of the industry.
Every writer on technology or business should be obliged to study (not just read)the work of you both.

[Robin Daunter]

Guy was and is a legend; he never seemed to get tired of this difficult and frustrating industry.

He will be sadly missed but never forgotten.

[Nick Hampshire]

Goodbye old friend….

Our paths first crossed over 33 years ago, in 1977, when Guy was at New Scientist and I had just started a hobby computing newsletter. Since then we have been good friends and our paths have crossed many times, working for the same publishers, writing for the same magazines, going to the same press launches. You were always there with a friendly face, the latest gossip, and a deep insight into many things in life, not just technology.

Most recently we were partners in a little e-reader consultancy called AFAICS. Guy thought of the name, an acronym for As Far As I Can See. We published a couple of reports on e-reader and e-paper technology and used to hold all our meetings either in the Dog and Duck, our ‘office’, over a pint of the landlords best, or at Govindas over a thali.

On the 30th, Guy’s birthday, I will be raising a glass to him in the Dog and Duck. Guy will be greatly missed, but will always live on in my memory, and I am sure in the memories of all the many other people who knew him, and whose lives he touched.