Reuters
I was posted first to Senegal, then to Nigeria as Chief Correspondent for West Africa. It was the 1960s. Africa was going through its period of post-colonial turmoil and I found myself in a world of almost perpetual violence, covering eleven coups d’état and revolutions, up and down the coast, from Senegal to Gabon.
After that, I moved to Rome as Chief Correspondent in time for more violence in the form of the student unrest of 1968. But there were also peaceful times, reporting the Vatican, the American invasion of the Rome film studios and the never-ending twists and turns of Italian politics.
I also had a hilarious spell as a gossip columnist. I was asked to write a column for Tatler. Reuters agreed but I wasn’t ready for the lengths to which the rich and famous will go for a mention in a fashionable magazine. My Tatler career ended with a spectacular row with ‘head office’ over news values and I gratefully fled the field intact.
It was in Rome that I decided I would have to leave Reuters if I ever wanted to write a novel. I tried several times to begin, then a big story would break and a week later I could barely remember the title of the novel, let alone pick up the thread.
I’d always wanted to be a Reuters correspondent and I loved every minute of it. Giving it up was a terrible wrench, but the itch to write a thriller was just too strong.
After that, I moved to Rome as Chief Correspondent in time for more violence in the form of the student unrest of 1968. But there were also peaceful times, reporting the Vatican, the American invasion of the Rome film studios and the never-ending twists and turns of Italian politics.
I also had a hilarious spell as a gossip columnist. I was asked to write a column for Tatler. Reuters agreed but I wasn’t ready for the lengths to which the rich and famous will go for a mention in a fashionable magazine. My Tatler career ended with a spectacular row with ‘head office’ over news values and I gratefully fled the field intact.
It was in Rome that I decided I would have to leave Reuters if I ever wanted to write a novel. I tried several times to begin, then a big story would break and a week later I could barely remember the title of the novel, let alone pick up the thread.
I’d always wanted to be a Reuters correspondent and I loved every minute of it. Giving it up was a terrible wrench, but the itch to write a thriller was just too strong.