I was sad to read in your pages that Peter Sykes had died.

His tall figure and his northern dry humour loom large in my memories of working at the Oxford Mail and Times in the late 1970s early 1980s.

In fact, it was due to Peter’s willingness to take a punt on a young unknown that I came to work there at all. As a tongue-tied would-be reporter, I travelled up from Cardiff for an interview during which I remained almost entirely silent.

It was entirely my good fortune that Peter knew the tutor on my journalism course, and telephoned him to see if I was really such an idiot as I appeared to be. As deputy – later, editor – of the Oxford Times, he clearly took pleasure in training the next generation of journalists. I am sure I am not the only one who will always be grateful to him for that.

Sally Dugan (née Duncan), Brightwell-cum-Sotwell