More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 20

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in journalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

OF course, in the nature of the business, as soon as Sky arrives, I will be out of a job for the broadcaster.

But, for the moment, I’m doing three foreign news slots a day, live by satphone.

Two evenings later, the local equivalent of a revolution takes place. Locals demonstrate in the streets of the capital, Salem, which replaced Plymouth after it was buried in ash; they burn tyres and then battle the Montserrat police riot squad.

That night I do several updates and, later that night, the government of Montserrat resigns. I have a front page ‘splash’ in The Scotsman and the other nationals are quoting my stuff from Sky.

Altogether, a rather satisfactory result.