Tributes have been paid to the foreign correspondent Ann Leslie, the formidable British journalist hailed as “the most versatile of them all”, after her death aged 82.
Leslie, who was best known for her work as a freelance contributor, particularly on the Daily Mail, reported on events including the cold war, Northern Ireland’s Troubles and the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Born in 1941 in what is now modern-day Pakistan, she spent her early childhood in pre-partition India before returning to Britain at the age of nine. She read English at Oxford and took a job at the Daily Express upon graduation in the early 1960s.
She reported from more than 70 countries, often in perilous situations, covering many of the most notorious events of modern history.
After the announcement of her death, fellow journalists paid tribute.
“I admired her humour, resourcefulness, outspoken nature and – of course – her amazing journalism. And she never missed a party. She was remarkable,” said Channel 4 News’s international editor, Lindsey Hilsum, on Twitter.
“I’m sad to hear Ann Leslie has died,” said Steve Richards, the author and broadcaster. “We used to do a programme called Head to Head when the BBC allowed discussion to breathe. This fearless war reporter once told me she was terrified about her next assignment the following day: a health farm where she couldn’t smoke or drink.”
The BBC journalist Samira Ahmed wrote: “How I cherished my encounters with Ann Leslie. First when she came on Sunday Morning Live and later in the Newsnight green room – she told me how she used to handle gropers: stub your cigarette out on their hand. Feminist war stories on the home front. Goodbye to a formidable woman.”
The BBC’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, wrote: “Ann Leslie. A remarkable woman, a brilliant career, and always friendly to me when I was starting out.”
Working for various Fleet Street papers, Leslie covered the trials of Charles Manson and OJ Simpson, as well as the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Among the people she interviewed over the years were Muhammad Ali and the then Prince Charles.
She won the British Press Awards feature writer of the year prize in 1981 and 1989.
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After she was made DBE in 2007, she said: “I don’t talk about great achievements – it’s just the old thing about journalism being the first rough draft of history. I was on the East Berlin side when the wall came down and was outside the prison when Nelson Mandela came out. They were two good news stories. I work a lot in the Middle East. I was in Salvador and got shot at a few times.”
She added: “The Queen asked me how long I had been in journalism; I said 40 years … I said: ‘I’m in awe of your stamina.’ She just smiled.”
Leslie died in the early hours of Sunday morning. She is survived by her husband, Michael Fletcher, and her daughter Katharine.
