Adrienne Farrell Jackson, a smooth operator

A smooth operator, Adrienne successfully combined a foreign correspondent’s work with raising a family. She went for a job interview at Reuters in 1945 after seeing a newspaper classified ad. She thought “Reusters” was a furniture moving company. I was sent to New Delhi to help out during the 1962 Sino-Indian border war when two neighbours, leaders in the non-aligned peaceful coexistence movement, came to blows. The office was in a sprawling bungalow where the Jacksons lived and where I was put up. It was a neat arrangement. The only annoyance was the BBC correspondent, who rented a desk in the office, walking into the dining room to ask about a story while we were having dinner. It was a tense period. One morning Peter put down the phone and rushed out to the garden with a pair of binoculars. This is it, I thought. Chinese bombers are over Delhi. Adrienne calmly told me that Peter, a birdwatcher, had just spotted a rare specimen. ■