Sadness at death of former Evening Telegraph editor

Iremember the first page my nan used to turn to, when her evening paper dropped through her letter box, was always the family announcements.

But it wasn’t births or marriages she was interested in, it was the deaths.

I used to pull her leg and called her grandma ghoul but she would just smile and say unapologetically: “Wh en you get to my age, you want to know who’s died that you knew.’’

I’m not quite at that age yet but sadly, the number of people dying who I have come across is slowly but surely increasing each year. These days, particularly if like me you’ve moved around the country a bit, you’re more likely to find out sad news via social media.

And so it was last week when I learned on Twitter that my old colleague Kevin Booth had died at the criminally young age of 64, one year older than me.

Kevin, some of you may remember, was a former editor of the ET. He was appointed in 2000 pipping me to the post (or so the motivational managing director told me at the time).

When a new editor comes in it’s an uncertain time for staff, not least the deputy editor as, in those days like football managers, editors had a tendency to bring their own people with them.

I needn’t have worried because Kev or Boothy, as he was affectionately known, pretty quickly made everyone at the ET his own people.

He was a talented journalist, a fine boss but most importantly a great bloke.

After he left, we would occasionally talk or email each other but as the years passed our contact diminished and we hadn’t talked for years.

Even so I still thought of him as a friend and if he ever cropped up in conversation at Telegraph Towers, as he did quite recently, the memories were always fond.

Rest easy, pal.

CARING COPS

Norfolk police have come in for a bit of a bashing from the frothing right wingers after the force issued a guide to their officers listing 37 different gender terms and sexual identities to help them when dealing with members of the public.

I was disappointed to see that ‘carrot cruncher’ was not one of the 37!

Seriously, I don’t know if such a guide is necessary, but I do know it is clearly an attempt to be caring, understanding and inclusive and for that Norfolk police deserves praise not contempt.

Me and Boothy at his leaving do.