A FORMER journalist with the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, Richard Milne, has secured his dream job at the Financial Times.

Richard, 23, who lived in Hornyold Road before moving to Nottingham in April, worked in the offices of the Malvern Gazette from November, 2001 to March this year.

He has secured the job at the FT ahead of hundreds of other candidates and will start in Easter 2003, after a training course at London's City University. He was one of four candidates from a field of 270 to be given jobs on the newspaper.

A fluent French speaker, Richard had already worked at the FT's Paris office for three months while on a two-year French law course at the Sorbonne. He graduated simultaneously from the French university and King's College, London, where he gained a first in Law, just over a year ago.

Richard, who attended King's School in Worcester, said this week: "My time at the Gazette really helped me and showed me the day-to-day workings of a paper."

"It gave me confidence and I think it helped me get the job."