Paul Edward Goring is one of the best-known sights and sounds in Rye. You tend to hear his wonderful voice long before you see him. As town crier his roles are various but I wanted to know a bit about the private man behind the public figure. He is indeed a very entertaining person to interview.
What would your twenty-year old self think about what you have achieved?
He would have been very relieved! At twenty I was stuck in a very dull job, working for a firm of accountants in the days before computers, so everything had to be written down in big Dickensian leather ledgers and added up on an old-fashioned pull-handle adding machine; it would take a week to manually do what I can today do in a couple of hours on a computer. I remember worrying, at twenty, that my whole working life would be like that, so I would have been delighted to learn that I would one day end up in such a unique, fun and historical role as Rye town crier! Funnily enough, as a child I was taken to watch the national town criers championships in Hastings which made me really want to be a town crier myself, so the twenty-year-old me would have been doubly pleased that a childhood dream would one day be realised.
Do you have a favourite childhood memory and why?
I can’t pick just one. I was lucky enough to have a happy and stable childhood with a loving family, and although we were never well-off and money was always tight, I can’t recall any particular hardships. Unfortunately, I’m now at the age where most of my childhood memories involve people who are no longer with us, so even the happiest memories have a tinge of sadness in them, looking back.
What would you think would be your legacy?
I’m not sure that ‘legacy’ is the right word, but in my crying career so far I have cried for nearly 200 weddings and I hope to cry for many hundreds more; I like to think that in fifty years’ time, couples all over the world will be showing their wedding photos to their children and grandchildren, and there will be me, standing beside the bride and bridegroom on the town hall steps, and hopefully they will smile and remember and think that I helped to make their day a bit more special. I’d also like to hope that I have made a difference to Rye, as well, by helping to promote the town and to connect the town to its past.
Where is your favourite place in the world?
Oh, come on! If I don’t say Rye I’ll be lynched! On a serious note, I love Sussex, it’s in my blood. I’m from a very old Sussex family, none of my Goring ancestors has ever lived outside Sussex and I find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. As Kipling said, “To each his choice – and I rejoice, for the lot has fallen to me / in a fair ground, a fair ground / – yea, Sussex by the sea!”
What is your worst character trait?
I find it hard to say “no”.
What are the worst and best things about being in the public eye?
“Being in the public eye” makes me sound like a celebrity (or worse, politician!) I love the interaction with tourists and residents, and the obvious pleasure tourists have in seeing an actual, traditional town crier. In my other, (part-time) accountancy job, nobody ever stops me on my way in to work, saying “Oh wow! An accountant! Can I have a photo with you?” I always remind the tourists that Rye has had a town crier for at least 800 years, so I’m just the latest in a very long line.
Do you have a favourite quotation?
My actual favourite quotation (because it always makes me laugh) is from the unexpurgated version of Samuel Pepys’ diary and is therefore not repeatable in Rye News! Let’s go with a Terry Prachett favourite instead: “Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”
If you could sit on a park bench and have a conversation with anyone alive or dead, who would it be and why?
This is a corny answer, but – my dad, Ted Goring. He passed away eight years ago after a stroke, and for the last ten weeks of his life he was unable to speak, although he obviously had things he was trying to say.
Do you have a pet hate?
Answering questions about myself! I also get annoyed with the modern trend for ‘woke’ historical revisionism. You simply cannot judge a person from the 18th century (or even most of the 20th century) by today’s standards. They lived according to the standards and enlightenment-level of their time. Nowadays we may know better than them, but it is unfair to condemn them for not adhering to concepts or ideas which didn’t exist in their day.
If it was possible to turn the clocks back, what one thing would you change in your life?
Apart from taking up smoking, nothing. Everything you’ve done in your past, every decision, good or bad, that you’ve made, every mistake, every disaster, has led you to where you are today; and I would not want to change where I am today.
Image Credits: Kt Bruce , kt Bruce .