Remembering journalist Gwen Robinson

Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce writes about Gwen Robinson, the former Financial Times and Nikkei Asia journalist who died last week at the age of 65.

Luce writes, “She saw through bullshitters like jellyfish. But her kindness to young journalists, friends of friends, those suffering from proverbial broken wings and anyone who sought advice, was borne of a generous nature that dwarfed her occasional acerbity. “It’s never as good as you hope or as bad as you fear,” she would tell protégés. When Gwen left the FT in 2013 having worked there for nearly two decades from Tokyo, London, Washington and Bangkok, her colleagues were instantly struck by how much less they now knew of what was happening inside the paper.

“Gwen devoted most of her final years to Myanmar, a country blighted by military rule and ethnic cleansing. She covered it for Nikkei Asia, where she was editor-at-large, and as a senior fellow at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University’s think-tank the Institute of Security and International Studies. Though suffering from cancer, she loathed to dwell on her woes. Her itinerary never flagged. A question about how she was faring was parried by a blitz of inquiries about her questioner’s life. On her deathbed, Gwen’s brother played her 68 video messages from friends. Though she would have dismissed it as nonsense, the universe seemed also to tip its hand. The day before she died her hospital was shaken by the effects of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated Myanmar. She passed during peak Sakura, Japan’s achingly brief cherry blossom season.”

Read more here.