{"id":17424,"date":"2025-11-08T11:43:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=17424"},"modified":"2025-11-08T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:45:00","slug":"honest-rigorous-and-kind-david-gow-as-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/11\/honest-rigorous-and-kind-david-gow-as-mentor\/","title":{"rendered":"Honest, rigorous and kind: David Gow as mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

It isn\u2019t an exaggeration to say I owe my career to David.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

David McAllister, production and associate editor at Prospect magazine, pays tribute to the honesty and generosity of David Gow: kind, forthright, never patronising<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost exactly a decade ago<\/strong>, I sent a pitch to the anonymous enquiries email for\u00a0Sceptical Scot<\/em>. I was a recent graduate, had just finished my gap year of travel and procrastination; I had no idea what I wanted to do or what I should be doing. To my surprise, a few days later I received a response from one David Gow, editor.<\/p>\n

David liked my pitch. The modest article that resulted from it,\u00a0on the autonomy movements of Orkney and Shetland<\/a>, became the first piece of journalism I ever had published anywhere. David then shot me another email saying he was about to host the next\u00a0Sceptical<\/em> editorial meeting at his New Town flat \u2014 and wouldn\u2019t I like to come along and see how it\u2019s all done? Sat in that meeting just a week later, the youngest in the room by half, I was entranced and energised; for the first time I was given the sense of possibility.<\/p>\n

Right up to that point, before I rang his doorbell, I had been nothing but a stranger to David \u2014 not a face, barely even a name \u2014 yet the time and generosity he had already given me was immense. That alone tells you a lot about his character. As the mentor and colleague he would subsequently become over the next ten years of our acquaintance \u2014 working together on Sceptical Scot<\/em>,\u00a0Social Europe<\/em> and in other guises \u2014 I could not have wished for anyone better. It isn\u2019t an exaggeration to say I owe my career to David.<\/p>\n

As an editor David was rigorous and kind, but most of all never patronising. He would never accept a pitch out of politeness, no matter how long you\u2019d been writing for him; his terse \u201cTBH, no\u201d remains the most piercing rejection I\u2019ve ever received, and I\u2019m eternally grateful for it. David taught me that the first rule of good journalism is to never cut corners, because it shows. But perhaps more importantly, particularly for a clueless young writer still unsure of themselves, his honesty never went unaccompanied by encouragement and faith.<\/p>\n

David\u2019s passing is a huge loss for Scotland, which remains in desperate need of the kind of thoughtful journalism he did so much to promote. It\u2019s by taking up the task he set that we continue his good work\u2014and honour his legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“As an editor David was rigorous and kind, but most of all never patronising. 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