More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 33

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in journalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

IT was 5.10am when I momentarily thought the world had come to an end.

An enormous explosion woke me from my slumbers and drove the early morning songsters from the trees.

When you heard an explosion in the middle of Tirana it was either bad news, or very bad news.

Somebody had, at best, had their property destroyed.

At worst, they’d gone up with it. Or, even worse…