Former foreign correspondent Dame Ann Leslie dies aged 82

Dame Ann reported on events including the Cold War, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Dame Ann was best known for her work as a freelance contributor, particularly on the Daily Mail (Fiona Hanson/PA) (PA Archive)

Former foreign correspondent Dame Ann Leslie has died aged 82.

Dame Ann, who was best known for her work as a freelance contributor, particularly on the Daily Mail, reported on events including the Cold War, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Born in 1941, in what is now modern-day Pakistan, she spent her early childhood in pre-partition India before returning to Britain at the age of nine.

She read English at Oxford, before taking a job at the Daily Express upon graduation in the early 1960s.

I don't talk about great achievements - it's just the old thing about journalism being the first rough draft of history

Dame Ann Leslie speaking in 2007

She reported from more than 70 countries – often in perilous situations – covering many of the most notorious events of modern history.

Working for various Fleet Street papers, she covered the trials of Charles Manson and OJ Simpson, as well as the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

Among the people she interviewed over the years were Muhammad Ali and the King.

She also won the British Press Awards Feature Writer of the Year in 1981 and 1989.

I was on the East Berlin side when the wall came down and was outside the prison when Nelson Mandela came out. They were two good news stories

Dame Ann Leslie speaking in 2007

Speaking to the PA news agency after she was made DBE in 2007, Dame Ann said: “I don’t talk about great achievements – it’s just the old thing about journalism being the first rough draft of history.

“I was on the East Berlin side when the wall came down and was outside the prison when Nelson Mandela came out. They were two good news stories.

“I work a lot in the Middle East. I was in Salvador and got shot at a few times.”

She added: “The (late) Queen asked me how long I had been in journalism, I said ’40 years’ … I said ‘I’m in awe of your stamina’. She just smiled.”

Dame Ann died in the early hours of Sunday morning. She is survived by her husband Michael Fletcher and her daughter Katharine.