The Chronicle

It was a memorial service fit for one of the legendary kings of Fleet Street, a Rothermere, Beaverbrook or even a Murdoch.  The congregation spilled into the aisles of St Bride’s church, the choir in place, as the rector started the bidding-prayer. Handel’s Largo from Xerxes had just rung out from the organ pipes, the melody pulsating through the Wren masterpiece, drifting across its cobbled courtyard and leafy graveyard and into the alleyways that are the capillaries of an … [Read more...] about Death of a wordsmith

A streaker dashed across the pitch as Don Bentley and his colleagues watched cricket on television late one night in the newsroom, after the first edition of the Chronicle had been put to bed.  “Haven’t see a streaker in years,” said the sports editor. Don Bentley wasn’t listening. He was thinking of a streaker from years gone by, long ago in the city of Johannesburg. After the next over, he told the story.  “It was early in the morning, before the African sun had risen … [Read more...] about A shot of Mellowood

The editor and his deputy sat in the bar of Port Moresby airport. What was usually a chore, an obligation, had turned into something else – an outing, an escape from the office on an impossibly hot and humid day to the comfort of a lounge that offered impossibly cold beer.  The bar of the Port Moresby airport was in fact known to be the only air-conditioned space in the whole of the country and the editor and his deputy had up until that point not recognised its … [Read more...] about Cool reception for a new recruit

Eager cub-reporter Don Bentley was determined to get his first scoop, even though there had been some false starts and a little humiliation along the way. His colleagues might have exposed his youthful naiveté, playing tricks on him by giving him false leads, but he had learned to grin and bear his predicament. It was, after all, only a form of  initiation ceremony to prepare him for the future, if only be could survive the present. Along with the tricks that had left-him … [Read more...] about On a wing and a prayer

TANGLED up in blue, Don Bentley was angry because he could not get the time off from work to go to a Bob Dylan concert in Melbourne. Bentley had already booked holiday before he realised Dylan was coming to Australia and once the holiday roster was posted on the notice board in the newsroom it was virtually set in concrete and dates couldn’t be changed. Bentley had heard Dylan described as the patron saint of journalists and he could understand why. Dylan, besides being a … [Read more...] about Deadline Dylan