Albion Land: He was larger than life

I need fewer than the fingers on just one hand to count the people I have known who are “larger than life,” and Peter Mackler was one of them.

I was still fairly new at AFP and to the Middle East desk when, at the height of the intifada, word went round among the old-timers, accompanied by a sense of relief, that Peter Mackler was flying in from Paris to help us cope with the frenetic workload.

And help he did. Not only was he there with us in the day-to-day challenge of covering the story but also bullying a short-sighted management into recognising that, if you’re top story in the world nearly every day, it stands to reason that you need adequate human and technical resources to cover it.

So much has already been said here about Peter’s personality and professionalism that I won’t tire the reader with repetition.

Just one thing, though.

Sauf erreur, the obit left out the fact that Peter also “orchestrated” coverage of the Iraq war. I’m not sure I was aware at the time of his being known as The General, but I dubbed him The Field Marshall. In turn, knowing of my religious vocation, he began to call me Archbishop. In the five years since then, there was never a phone call or email between us in which those titles weren’t used.

I will miss you very much, Field Marshall.

-- Albion Land

Middle East Desk, Nicosia