Veteran journalist dies at 74

VETERAN Hongkong journalist Alan Chalkley died yesterday at the age of 74.

Mr Chalkley, of Merry Terrace, Seymour Road, Central, left the Financial Times in London to become one of the best known Hongkong journalists during the 1970s. He was still writing regular columns for several magazines right up until his death.

The British journalist settled in Hongkong with his wife Betty in 1976. He gained fame when he wrote a column in the South China Morning Post called the Book of Hong, in the style of the Bible, which later became a successful stage play.

Earlier in his career, Mr Chalkley was one of the founding members of the Press Foundation of Asia and was a founder of The Asian, a newspaper printed in Hongkong in the late 1970s.

He also worked as a lecturer at the East-West Centre in Hawaii.

Mr Chalkley died of cardiac arrest at his home yesterday morning.