Reith's female rival
From Mr Michael Carney Michael Vestey needs to get to know his broadcasting history (Arts, 14 August). Once upon a time there was a woman, with- out a baby, who could have run the BBC. Her name was Hilda Matheson and she was the BBC's first director of talks from 1926 until 1931, when Reith forced her to resign. She was at least the equal of Reith. Her out- standing ability is evidenced by the rest of her career — MI5 in the first world war, Lady Astor's political secretary, successful journalist, editor of the great African Survey, and MI6 in the second world war when she directed a clandestine broadcasting service and initiated a series of propaganda books that are still collected today. Her pioneering work at the BBC was responsible for much that is still best in broadcasting. Yet she is unknown — not least because Reith couldn't abide a rival and did all he could to remove any record of her achievement. I hope that her biography, which I have just completed, has a better fate. All the pub- lishers I approached said that the life of an unknown woman by an unknown author was hopelessly uncommercial.
Michael Carney.
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