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<\/p>\nFormer Bristol Live reporter’s memoir charts 20 years in the courts<\/p>\n
Former Bristol Live court reporter Geoff Bennett<\/p>\n
The journalist who spent 20 years reporting some of the Bristol’s most significant criminal cases for the Bristol Post and Bristol Live has published his debut memoir.<\/p>\n
It charts a career that covers Geoff Bennett’s own father predicted would never happen.<\/p>\n
The Wolf of Small Street – so called because Bristol Crown Court is in Small Street – is part coming-of-age story, part front-row account of British journalism through one of its most turbulent periods of change.<\/p>\n
Geoff spent the last 20 years of his career as dedicated Crown Court Reporter for the Bristol Evening Post, a specialist role he joined in 2003 and held until taking voluntary redundancy in September 2023.<\/p>\n
Before that, he worked as sports editor and general reporter for the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald and the Swindon Evening Advertiser.<\/p>\n
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Former Bristol Live court reporter Geoff Bennett’s memoir<\/p>\n
The book’s title reflects the 63-year-old’s dual life – living in Swindon while working the courts of Bristol – and covers everything from his Wiltshire childhood and a decade of drifting before journalism finally claimed him, to the landmark trials that made national headlines.<\/p>\n
Geoff left his role with Bristol Live in late 2023 and went off travelling.<\/p>\n
He said: “We spent the first couple of years in South East Asia – Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia but then I developed a medical issue that left me incapacited.<\/p>\n
“I decided to fulfil what had been a pipe dream and put together my autobiography. I knew it was of interest to people because whenever I had told people what I did people said ‘that must be an interesting job’. I thought I had an interesting thing to write, not just about my early life but journalism too.”<\/p>\n
Geoff had archived everything he had had published over the years so had a plenfiful supply of source material.<\/p>\n
“I covered a lot of cases and always tried to cover the big ones. John Hogan on holiday with his family in Crete. He jumped of a hotel balcony with his children and ended up killing his son.<\/p>\n
“I was dispatched to Greece with a Greek-speaking photographer and covered that breaking story. There was no court action but we joined the national press pack in following the latest.<\/p>\n
“I remember being in a hot car park, we all put down our big cameras and went up try and get past armed guards to get a picture.”<\/p>\n
Geoff recalled how good contacts was a big part of getting the best our of covering the courts.<\/p>\n
“I was lucky enough to have a specialist court reporter role when it’s hard to deploy someone like that but I thought it was a sensible thing. It’s such a great place for stories – you get to know the court clerks and barristers, even judges – and they will tip you the wink for good stories,” he said.<\/p>\n
Asked about some of the other major cases he covered, Geoff recalled the Colston 4 trial, who he thought intitially felt would be found guilty.<\/p>\n
“I thought they were a lovely genuine lot and they brought forward such stong arguments about why the statue was so offensive. They won me over – and the jury – over, so I changed my view and I was glad of the result.”<\/p>\n
Asked about what it was like listening to what is often difficult evidence, Geoff said he managed to keep the details of the cases seperate from his role.<\/p>\n
He said: “People said I must get upset at what I heard but the truth is I was more concerned about hitting deadlines – getting it right and getting it out there – that made me anxious, rather than what I was listening too.”<\/p>\n
Geoff was keen to point out it’s not a grim memoir: “It’s light and funny in the first half, it’s only the second part where it gets more serious.”<\/p>\n
His coverage of the Joanna Yeates murder trial in 2011 is among the most vivid passages in the book.<\/p>\n
Geoff was one of a handful of reporters present when the jury visited Yeates’ Clifton<\/a> flat – a home, he writes, that was ‘trapped in time… cold rooms smeared with grey fingerprint powder’ still prepared for a Christmas that never came.<\/p>\n The memoir charts the seismic changes Geoff witnessed across his career – from broadsheet print journalism to online publishing, video, live-blogging and social media.<\/p>\n The book is also, frequently, very funny – from a chaotic Swindon childhood to the characters encountered across four decades in regional newsrooms.<\/p>\n