Pilgrim's Progress: A self-portrait
Bernard Palmer
From the author* £10 incl. p&p

WHEN Bernard Palmer - fourth generation of the Palmer dynasty that founded and owned the Church Times - came down from Cambridge with a good classics degree, an Eton scholarship, and his National Service behind him, he had no real idea what should come next. His father had consulted the vocational adviser at the National Institute of Industrial Psychology (they did nothing by halves in that family), who had suggested the higher grades of the Civil Service or librarianship; but Palmer hankered after journalism, and was told that it could be a useful sideline, but not a career.

Nevertheless, he applied without success to a number of secular newspapers, and it was almost as a last - and temporary - resort that he agreed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of a reporter on the family newspaper. And so began 39 years on the Church Times, 21 of them as editor, of which he rightly claims that he "completed the transformation from a partisan journal into a Church of England newspaper . . . which Anglicans of every persuasion could enjoy".

And though it was still set on Linotype machines in the paper's own composing room on the top floor of the Portugal Street office, it was he who brought its design up to date from the "real dog's breakfast: a hotch-potch of assorted type-faces" it had been, turning it into a good-looking newspaper of which its contributors could be proud.

He steered the paper with an even hand through turbulent times in the Church (when have they not been?), and, since he retired, has become an almost compulsive writer of more than a dozen books exploring byways of church history and personalities, and his own family history and memoirs. Now he has written his autobiography, Pilgrim's Progress, in fluent detail, and most fascinating are those chapters about his time at the helm of the leading Anglican newspaper. They form a brilliant potted history of the Church through most of the latter half of the 20th century.

Far more liberal than his predecessors, he began by sharply extending the range of his contributors. "In its Anglo-Catholic heyday only Anglo-Catholics had been permitted to write regularly for the paper," and that had been true even under the previous two editors, Rosamund Essex and Roger Roberts. Before many years had passed, he was able to claim that every point of view had been represented in the paper's pages. Even that controversial radical Monica Furlong was asked to provide a Lenten series. Even so, he was cautious about editorial bias.

As he came to the editor's chair in 1968, a significant issue before the Church was the Anglican-Methodist unity scheme. Since the report containing the proposals had been published in 1963, the paper had supported it, but by June 1969 it was hedging its bets. A referendum of the clergy had shown that a sizeable minority of them would refuse to take part in the proposed service of reconciliation. "I thought it only prudent to back-pedal editorially because, however much the Church Times might commend the scheme in principle, it simply wouldn't be practical politics to implement it in the face of substantial opposition."

By the time the General Synod was inaugurated in 1970, women's ordination was a growing concern. Palmer saw that it was properly debated in the paper, even though his postbag contained furious letters from both sides of the argument accusing it of extreme bias. In fact, "broadly speaking the paper continued in the 'not yet' camp". Like the General Synod, it saw no fundamental objections to women priests, but did not consider the time ripe.

But the paper did not always take a conciliatory path, and really showed its true feelings over Archbishop Coggan's Call to the Nation, when Coggan, for some extraordinary reason, went to great lengths to conceal his plans for it from the religious press while courting secular editors and proprietors to back him. The Church Times reporters Susan Young and Betty Saunders got wind of what was going on, and Palmer protested. When he was asked why he thought the Church Times should have special privileges when it came to the release of confidential information, Palmer retorted angrily: "You do not seriously believe we print all those dreary letters from archdeacons because we imagine they fascinate our readers?"

Meanwhile, there was "ecumenical euphoria induced by the 1982 visit to Britain of John Paul II", about which Palmer was sceptical, on the grounds that Rome regarded the Church of England as heretical anyway, and its orders as null and void. He believed that the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission would get nowhere while John Paul remained on the throne; and "The trouble with mammoth ecumenical events like the Papal visit was that those who took part in them tended to get carried away by their own enthusiasm, and the public was given the impression that the events meant more than they did."

They were interesting years, enlivened by controversies such as the appointment of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham, divine displeasure being shown, many believed, by the lightning strike on York Minster; and the tragic outcome of the "Crockford affair", when the anonymous writer of a critical preface committed suicide rather than face exposure. Palmer coped with them all, including the uneasy suspicion of three of the Archbishops of Canterbury he had to deal with: Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, and Donald Coggan; but he rejoiced in the friendly understanding and support of Robert Runcie, from whose hands he received a Lambeth doctorate.

As retirement drew near, and knowing that neither of his adopted children had any inclination to follow him into the family firm, he welcomed the interest of Henry Chadwick, chairman of Hymns Ancient & Modern. And thus, after four generations, the paper was sold, and a new editor, John Whale, arrived. Within a few days, Whale had sacked the news editor, Susan Young. "The grounds for her dismissal at twenty-four hours' notice were specious in the extreme," Palmer writes, "and the manner of it so insensitive that it sent shock waves . . . through the central councils of the Church, where she was widely known." He says he has written a full account of it in a Secret History of the "Church Times", yet to be published.

That marred an otherwise happy retirement with his wife, Jane, to Dorset, from where they indulged their love of exotic travel (recounted in his biography of Jane), and he started writing books. After her death, and the end of a very happy marriage, he now lives close to his daughter in Essex, and, judging by his indefatigable typewriter (no computer yet), this biography is unlikely to be the last of his output.

*Write to Dr Bernard Palmer, 151 Rickstones Road, Witham, Essex CM8 2PQ.