For almost two decades, working for three successive owners, Donald Trelford, who has died at the age of 85, edited the Observer under exceptional, trying circumstances. Starved of resources that were available elsewhere in Fleet Street, Trelford was nonetheless able to produce editions of the highest quality and so ensured the survival of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.
“He loved nothing more than a cracking good story, his skills as a layout man meant he could always ensure it got a damn good show and he was also a canny political operator,” recalled Robin Lustig, a former Observer home affairs editor. “He was a newspaperman to his fingertips.”
