Bryan Webster

The rough tough General Manager of Singer Manufacturing at Clydebank in Scotland slapped a title on Bryan Webster - 'an argumentative big bugger'. It is a title Bryan wears with honour. It cost him his first and last proper jobs but has given him endless satisfaction and earned him thousands of pounds in his writing. This includes articles for the Financial Times, The Scotsman and other publications. He has won several essay competitions including the Management Consultants Association/Financial Times Award and was banned from another after winning it two years in succession.

Bryan Webster was born in Jarrow when 80% of male workers were out of work. His father was a chemical worker and his mother a domestic servant whose father was a pit overman who defied the General Strike.

Bryan won a place at the local grammar school, did national service and went into the Methodist Ministry. After 11 frustrating years he threw it over and took the only 'ordinary' job he could get - clerical work in Singer. There he was promoted several times until he became a divisional manager. From Singer he joined Barr & Stroud a hi-tech but stuffy defence company where after 8 years he crossed enough of the directors to be asked to leave. He then embarked on a successful career as a free-lance management consultant. Having married a fisherman's daughter from Eyemouth on the Scottish Border he settled into the common life of the folk there.

Bryan has a great regard for working men and women as they pick their way through whatever life throws at them - and an undiluted suspicion of authorty in any form. These two themes inform all his writing.