KNYSNA NEWS - After 50 years in journalism and being regarded as one of the longest-serving journalists and news anchors in the UK, what else is there to do when you finally retire?
You write a book to try to explain to your grandchildren what exactly it is you did all those years, said Jeremy Thompson to a jam-packed Mitchell's Brewery on 11 March during the Knysna Literary Festival.
Small beginnings
Thompson started out at a local newspaper and over the decades worked for all the major television news outlets, from the BBC to ITV and finally ending up at Sky News where he was a foreign correspondent since the early 90s. He even lived in South Africa for a while.
"I've seen and covered everything from politics to sport, from natural disasters to crime, from shootouts to bombings and everything in between. Not forgetting the royals, of course," he told the captivated audience.
'Very lucky career'
Thompson said he decided to call it quits at the end of 2016. "I had a blessed, fortunate and very lucky career by then and had a good fill of it all. I decided I wanted to spend more time with my wife. And then the idea of a book came up – something I was kind of cornered into,” he said.
So he decided to aim his book at his grandchildren who most certainly would one day ask what it is he did for a living.
Jeremy Thompson
'I feel like a museum piece'
According to Thompson he has experienced some of the best, worst, most absurd to most wonderful things over the years, and has seen how journalism has changed as technology developed more and more.
“I feel like a museum piece sometimes. I started with a pencil and notepad, phoning in my copy to lugging around a big tape recorder for radio, to the advent of the videotape used in television right through the pneumatic days.
"Then came the satellites we had to put together on the scene. I remember we were filming the queen (Elizabeth of Britain) during her visit to China and had to unpack almost 50 boxes worth of equipment,” he said.
“Today I can do an entire broadcast on my iPhone,” he added, quite amused.
Mandela 'most impressive'
Thompson regaled the audience with tales of his travels, from being caught up in the Bisho massacre in September 1992 to watching South Africa go through the tumultuous time just before Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
“This was all before 1994. I thought, especially after the assassination of Chris Hani, that SA was headed to a civil war. Then Mandela came along and diffused the situation,” he said. Thompson counts Mandela as by far the most impressive man he met in his 50 years of journalism – they were even on a first name basis.
He told of how he and other journalists who were used to SA at the time tricked an American journalist into going shopping in Sandton, dressed in full “defensive gear”.
The audience at Mitchell's Brewery was captivated by Jeremy Thompson.
'Minister of information' offer
He told of his coverage and involvement in the 1992 coup d'état in Sierra Leone when a young army officer became the accidental president of the country. “I even received an offer to become the minister of information after the whole debacle,” he chuckled.
These and many other tales can be found in his book.
In closing, Thompson spoke about modern journalism. "The greatest challenge facing the next generation of journalists is fake news,” he said.
About SA and its future he feels optimistic. “You are a resilient and resourceful people – you will find your way forward.”
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