Lockdown sailed past when I had the notion of writing my memoir , Pressing My Luck about my 44-year career in Fleet Street. Now the 90,000-word book is published by Amazon I am undergoing a crash course in modern media of the genre which has passed me by hitherto.

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A bit of my background. In 1964 I graduated from Oriel College, Oxford, and landed a trial on The Daily Express (the top selling middle market paper of the day). Having been turned down by fifteen provincial papers this was my last attempt at securing work as a journalist. Cut to ten years later and I had the scoop of the decade. I found Ronnie Biggs in Brazil – published in ‘The Daily Express‘ newspaper  – and told his story in a best selling book: Ronnie Biggs THE MOST WANTED MAN which was translated into ten languages. 

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Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber who escaped from Wandsworth prison in July 1965, came into my life courtesy of my neighbour Constantine Benckendorff. He had been backpacking round South America in 1973 when he chanced upon a man calling himself Michael Haynes. This was the identity Biggs “borrowed” from a friend when he eluded the Australian police four years earlier. By now he was running out of money and ideas. It was stressful not having legal papers. So he asked Conti to find a journalist willing to do his story. It is bingo for me. Until it nearly went wrong – thanks to Daily Express editor Iain McColl and Scotland Yard.