A former local newspaper reporter who still runs a press agency at 75 has published his first book.

Bill Lucas has looked back on his 50-year journalism career and stories from the Isle of Lewis for his book ‘Dateline: Stornoway’.

Bill started his career in 1949 with a five-year stint at his hometown paper the Hamilton Advertiser.

He followed this with reporting jobs at the Stornoway Gazette and The Scotsman before setting up the Hebridean Press Service, in Stornoway, in 1961.

Bill said the book covered a massive range of stories but one in particular stood out.

“There was one about a young man who had drank poison,” he told HoldtheFrontPage.

“It resulted in him receiving Europe’s first lung transplant and possibly the first emergency lung transplant in the world.”

Other stories featured in the book include the departure of the last lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles and the recent alleged abduction of Molly Campbell.

The book is self-published by the Hebridean Press Service, not something Bill said he do again in a hurry without a crack team of proof-readers on standby.

In 1998 Bill was made a lifetime member of the National Union of Journalists and in 2005 he was handed the Barron Trophy for achievements in journalism at the Highland Press Awards.

Proceeds from the book, which is available from Amazon and www.bethesdahospice.co.uk, are going to the Bethesda Hospice, in Stornoway.

Comments

Vivienne DuBourdieu (24/10/2008 18:06:20)
Bravo, Bill Lucas! You’re an inspiration to any journalist (NUJ or otherwise) who wants to keep working after the official age of retirement. I look forward to reading and reviewing your book. Vivienne DuBourdieu, Vice Chairman, Freelance Division, CIoJ