Eastern Daily Press journalist Colin Chinery has retired after more than 30 years with the paper.

The senior features and leader writer first joined the EDP in 1965, before becoming leader writer of the East Anglian Daily Times in 1969.

He later turned to radio, working for the BBC in the Midlands, but missed writing so much he returned to the Eastern Daily Press in 1974 as leader writer and feature writer.

Colin said: “Working for the BBC I missed the sheer pleasure of writing and when I received the call from Peter Roberts (the then editor) and consulted with the family we all moved back to Norfolk and this has been my home ever since.

“The most important leader I wrote concerned the death of Princess Diana which was shocking in itself but there was a degree of press hysteria about the event, the funeral and the period of mourning and I addressed this to give a sense of proportion.

“I was judging the moment and had to be confident in my approach.

“I was only every challenged by one editor who wanted me to write about a personality in a particular way which I did not think was appropriate.”

Paying tribute to Colin’s work, EDP editor Peter Franzen said: “Colin’s balanced outlook and wide experience of Norfolk has been invaluable over the years and he has made a substantial contribution to the high reputation of the newspaper.

“When big stories break, it is sometimes difficult to make a judgement with authority.

“But Colin always came up with the right words to express opinions shared by the readers of the EDP and its staff.”

Colin plans to spend his retirement continuing to write and spending more time with his family.

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