Secret of a long life

my big plan was to retire at 50 using my Equitable Life pension.  The late Fleet Street journalist Geoffrey Goodman wanted to do the same.  He told me that he had also planned such an escape and was going to use his Daily Mirror pension to achieve that. (Robert Maxwell ended that idea)

This was back in the early 1994.  'Senior Management' was looking for a left-wing commentator for a right-wing(ish) show he was producing called 'First Edition.' Geoffrey Goodman was our choice and he turned out to be a wise, warm, caring and very well informed commentator -  an Industrial Editor for at least three newspapers and counted among his friends politicians like Tony Benn.

So it was that Geoffrey continued to work, I remember last speaking to him when I was at the BBC and helping to produce the US Election Programme in 2008.  Happy to come on he set a very high bar as a commentator and guest.

Last Thursday 5th September he died aged 91 a good age - so maybe the secret of a long life is for someone to steal your pension fund and you continue working? - I hope so.