Tributes have been paid to former business editor at The Journal and regional writer Peter Jackson who has died.
Peter Jackson, 63, who has passed away after an illness, enjoyed a varied career as a hugely respected writer, including eight years with The Journal, but it wasn’t his original choice of career. Born in Lancashire he read Modern History at Oxford before going to work in the City of London for eight years, for accountants Coopers & Lybrand, merchant banks and stockbrokers, and it was in London where he met his wife Anne in 1984.
Deciding that working in the City wasn’t for him, in 1988 the couple returned to Lancashire and ran a cleaning and car valeting business for a time, before he decided to retrain as a journalist at Lancashire Polytechnic. His wife says he was naturally drawn to the vocation, having always been interested in writing, reading and in people and their stories.
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After qualifying he worked on newspapers in Lancashire, including the Chorley Guardian, before moving to the North East and joining the Journal. He was business editor for four years and business reporter for three, with a year as features writer, and is fondly remembered in the newsroom for his dry wit and humourous anecdotes just as much as for his sharp, incisive writing.
While at The Journal Peter was four times named North East Business Journalist of the Year, helping the paper to win the national title for the BT Regional Press and Broadcast Awards in 1998. Under his editorship The Journal was also named Business Paper of the Year in 2001.
After leaving The Journal in 2002 he worked in PR but returned to writing in 2008 and as a freelance journalist spent two years editing North East Contact magazine and BQ2 magazine, contributing features to regional and national publications on subjects ranging from business to showbusiness celebrity interviews.
Two years ago he saw the fruition of a longheld ambition to published his first fiction novel, Legions of the Moon, a historical adventure with the Roman fort of Longovicium as its location, set 1,800 years ago.
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At the time he revealed how he had always wanted to be a writer, in terms of writing fiction, having been particularly fond of historical fiction. The book, which blends historical figures with invented ones and well-researched details of military and civilian life, piqued the interest of independent publisher WriteSideLeft. The publishers were so impressed with his debut that they commissioned a trilogy, and nominated it for the prestigious annual Crime Writers’ Association Sapere Book Historical Dagger award.
He had been working on the second installment in the trilogy before he passed away.
He and his wife Anne had enjoyed many holidays, cycling and walking as they explored overseas locations, but a long-diagnosed condition affecting his breathing had worsened over the last year and he passed away on March 31 with his wife by his side.
Graeme Whitfield, editor of The Journal said: “Peter was a great presence in the newsroom – knowledgeable and fun and a great writer. It was great to see Peter turn his hand to fiction with such success and I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see more of this ‘second act’ in his writing career."
Peter leaves his wife Anne and son Harry.
The funeral takes place on Thursday April 21, at 2pm at Mountsett Crematorium, Dipton, County Durham.