Brian - the quintessential journalist

It was sad to hear that Brian Williams is no more. Brian was the quintessential journalist, tough as nails, a smiling assassin with words. A wordsmith to the core, Brian made regular visits to Colombo while being stationed in India as the bureau chief.

My first encounter with Brian was in around 1982. I was writing a few econ pieces for Reuters as a part-time freelance which caught Brian’s attention. According to today’s standards, they were not great pieces but since Reuters was new to the area of econ news at the time in Sri Lanka, Brian felt maybe I could fill a need that could develop in the future and offered me a full-time post, which I grabbed.

That led to many, many associations with Brian in Colombo and India. Brian filled the bureau with laughter and his trademark cigarette, puffing away and thumping away on the keyboard or a typewriter.

Covering the Sri Lankan conflict, whenever he visited, was a piece of cake given his experience in Vietnam. Such was his dedication that one evening after a couple of (no,  maybe many) drinks, we went home while Brian retired to his hotel room having promised to do the morning skedder.

By 8:30 am, he had not turned up and I went to his hotel to find out what was wrong. He opened the door with blood-red eyes and glass of whisky in his hand, and said with a drawl and a lazy smile “Hey mate, given me a few minutes I’ll be there soon”.

True to his word, he staggered into the office soon after with a “good moooorning” shout, sat at the computer and churned out a 800-word masterpiece in 45 minutes. Drinking all night until morning hadn’t affected his writing and thinking ability one bit!

I owe Brian a lot for his decision to recruit me to a great agency and workplace. The world is going to miss you, big fellow! ■