Career
This was followed by a period in Algeria (1960-1964), where he worked as a freelance reporter after that country"s independence from France in 1962. In 1964, he became the British Broadcasting Corporation"s correspondent in East Africa. His career continued in 1965 with a spell in Asia, where he reported widely on the early part of the Vietnam war from Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam.
Also in 1965 he reported from Beijing for the British Broadcasting Corporation, becoming one of its first foreign correspondents to report from China since the communist revolution.
He was based in London from 1969 to 1971 in the post of the Corporation"s Assistant Diplomatic Correspondent, becoming the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Rome correspondent in August 1972. He is the author of "The Promise of Francis: The Manitoba, The Pope And The Challenge Of Change" (Simon & Schuster, 2015) which assesses the high expectations aroused by the election of the first pope from Latin America.
He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, 2003 for services to broadcasting journalism.