Former Daily Mail journalist John Edwards, described as “one of the last great writer-reporters from the halcyon days of Fleet Street”, has died aged 91.
His death has been noted with a feature in the Mail by editor at large Richard Kay who wrote: “John Edwards was never one of Fleet Street’s armchair reporters, sitting in a comfortable office in front of a flickering computer screen.
“For almost 60 years he was always where the action was, describing – often in gory, brutal detail – what he had jotted down meticulously in his trusty notebook. Yes, a notebook, not a smartphone or any other modern recording miracle.”
Edwards began is career on the West Wales Guardian after leaving grammar school at 15. He went on to work for the Liverpool Echo before a career change into public relations in the late 1950s.
He joined the Daily Mirror in 1960 and went on to work for the Daily Sketch before joining the Daily Mail in 1971.
In 1976 he won both Reporter of the Year and the What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year for his coverage of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war the previous year.
According to the Daily Mail, in 1980 he passed himself off as the wedding cake maker to infiltrate the marriage ceremony of Haiti’s brutal dictator Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier.
Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre (who is still editor in chief of Associated Newspapers) said: “John was one of the last great writer-reporters from the halcyon days of Fleet Street when print, not the web, ruled journalism and globetrotting firemen like him were its stars.
“For John, the words which told a story were as important as the facts. Both were sacred. But for him, heaven was a perfect intro.
“He was a brilliant popular newspaper journalist – at a time when such papers were read by tens of millions – because of his ability to make huge, often complex events highly readable to the man in the street.
“He did so in his unique style often focusing on the oblique detail, talking to obscure bit players behind the scenes and painting, in his spare, muscular prose with its staccato rhythms, a picture that captured the mood of an event far more powerfully than conventional news reports.”
Dacre said he was man who “effervesced with an inexhaustible creative energy and effortless wit”.
Stephen Wright, the Mail’s long-serving crime and investigative journalist, said: “One of my best friends in the media – who grew up in local newspapers in the 1970s – said everyone at journalist training school in those days wanted to be John Edwards. That says it all.
“I first worked with John at the Rose West trial in Winchester 30 years ago, and later on the Omagh bombing. He was a true legend – an inspiring figure – but so humble with it. I loved his company, his anecdotes and his wit. I will miss him dearly.”
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