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Jim Lawrence woke to find a flight attendant prodding his arm, asking him if he would like a cup of coffee. The flight from Heathrow, London, to Glasgow was a short one and he had never been offered coffee on it before. That was not the only unusual thing about this flight. The aircraft was an impossibly large one and not just coffee, but breakfast, was also being served. The sun streamed through the window on to his lap. It was harsh and strong and Lawrence could feel it … [Read more...] about A flight in drink’s slipsteam

WHAT happened to Tom Peters between the weigh-in for the Sonny Liston-Cassius Clay world heavyweight title fight and the fight itself was … Tom Peters got drunk. Tom Peters often got drunk but not at such an important time as this. He was, after all, the boxing writer for the Globe, a London tabloid newspaper second only in circulation to the five-million selling Daily Mirror. Tom Peters had filed a sparkling report on the weigh-in, which had made the Globe’s front page … [Read more...] about Mateship proves a knock-out

Don Bentley chained the front wheel of his bicycle to the railings of the Commercial Road car park and started to walk along Woking’s main drag to the offices of the Woking News and Mail. He lingered at the entrance to the Victorian, two-storey building and cast his eyes at the sign, a replica of the paper’s masthead, over the door. His excitement was palpable, he trembled at the knees. His moment had arrived, the chance to become a journalist but what to expect? Inside the … [Read more...] about Life and death in black and white

Don Bentley sat in the compartment of the train heading to London, thinking of murder. The smoke from the thundering steam engine wafted past the window as the teenage Bentley drifted in thought. Bentley was occupied not so much with the act of murder and its repercussions; the police investigation, the court case, the gallows. Bentley was imagining he was the reporter with a scoop; the journalist who broke the news of the killing first, the pressman whose byline was on the … [Read more...] about Butterflies on the semi-fast from Basingstoke

The obituaries came thick and fast this night. It was winter after all, when most people seemed to die; or so it appeared to Don Bentley.  He had 40 years experience in either writing or editing obituaries and he would always say you could virtually use the “births, deaths and marriages” notices in a newspaper as a calendar. Deaths in winter; marriage in spring and births in summer and early autumn. Obituaries generally were written to a certain style, a style all reporters … [Read more...] about Reporter comes to grief