A journalist from The Scotsman has won a top award in British agricultural and countryside journalism.

Fordyce Maxwell, the paper's rural affairs editor, received the Netherthorpe Award for lifetime achievement after being nominated by colleagues.

The judging panel praised him for outstanding coverage of last year's foot-and-mouth epidemic, which, they said, meant "his work was pre-eminent and that The Scotsman consistently led the way".

Fordyce said: "Those of us who do the job honestly are in a marathon not a sprint, and the Netherthorpe Award as rural communicator of the year recognises that."

Fordyce has spent most of his journalistic career with The Scotsman and was made an MBE for services to journalism in 1995.

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