Monthly Saturday Talk - Sir Rodney Brooke

Sir Rodney left school when he was 15 to work on the local newspaper in Morley. He later became chief executive of the West Yorkshire County Council, where he was intimately involved in the pursuit of the Yorkshire Ripper and dealing with the tragedy of the fire at Bradford City football club that killed 56 and scarred many more.

If nuclear war broke out, he was to be the county controller for Yorkshire and take refuge in a cave under the Pennines. After a Geiger counter showed that nuclear contamination had died down sufficiently he would emerge to restore order.

Sir Rodney has held several national public appointments as well as visiting fellowships at Leeds and Birmingham universities. He was the first chair of the Durham University public management centre. He was appointed CBE in 1997 and knighted in 2007. He has also been awarded the Orders of Merit of France, Germany, Qatar and Senegal and the Order of the Aztec Eagle of Mexico.