Chris Peterson: Impossible to forget

Chris, always a jolly roly-poly figure from the time he was Paris news editor in the early 1980s to our most recent meeting at a Dinosaurs (Old Parisians) gourmet lunch on the Seine in Spring this year, was one of those Reuter characters it was impossible to forget. He had a wealth of anecdotes from his eventful time in Saigon. He was a great connoisseur of south-east Asian cuisine and he and his Vietnamese wife Mai helped us - and many other colleagues and spouses - appreciate its real delights both at their home close to ours on Avenue Mozart and in various what would now be dubbed "ethnic" restaurants in the 16th arrondissement and beyond. In the office, he kept a light-hearted but steady control of the general news file, despatching newly arrived and nervous young correspondents off to cover tricky stories with a cheery: "Off you go. You can do it." Our condolences to Mai and their two daughters on their sad loss. ■