Holding the baby, holding the fort

I ran into the PR of a company in Los Angeles soon after we started to compete with Dow Jones. "You've got a funny set-up here", he said. "I rang your office to give my company results. A woman with a foreign accent answered the phone. 'Hang on a moment', she said. 'I just have to see to the baby.’" We could only afford a one-man bureau. When the splendid correspondent Bruce Russell was out of the office, which doubled up with his family apartment, his loyal French wife Marie Louise held the fort. ■