FREDERICK Forsyth, Sandy Gall, John Suchet and Derek Jameson - John Chadwick is in good company.

What they all have in common is that they were invited - as former Reuters's correspondents - to write chapters for a recently published book called Frontlines, commemorating the organisation's 150 years of news gathering and reporting.

Mr Chadwick, now retired in Middle Littleton, spent more than 40 years working for Reuters - much of it in the Middle East - witnessing notable events in history.

They included The Six-Day War, the 1960s war between India and Pakistan and President Gaddafi's ascent to power in Libya.

Even an assignment to organise the logistics for Reuters's coverage of the Munich Olympics in 1972 turned into a major and tragic news story, ending with the massacre of Israeli athletes after they were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.

John has recounted his experiences in Frontlines, lacing the chapter he has written with anecdotes, such as the ban he imposed on saluting him by local staff in the Cairo bureau.

Egyptian censors made his job difficult and it called for some ingenuity to get news out.

His assignments also brought him face-to-face with Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, Yasser Arafat.

The variety and unpredictability of his days with Reuters is reflected in his observation, in Frontlines, that one day he could be flying with the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin or Defence Minister, Shimon Peres, in an Israeli army helicopter bound for Lebanese border clashes.

His experiences have been echoed in recent events, with American and British armed forces bombarding Afghanistan, in their bid to apprehend Osama Bin Laden.

In Mr Chadwick's view, Afghanistan has "always been a wild place".

He went on: "They're a very, very proud people and very, very individual but I would never have thought, at that time, it would develop the way it did.

"They used to talk about the time of the occupation by the British: they would joke about it but there was never any residue of resentment against the British at that time."