About the Drone


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Alastair McIntyre worked for 32 years a journalist on the Daily Express, a national newspaper for Britain, based in London. He has now retired from the Express after accepting voluntary redundancy from a management who co-operated in his Great Escape by waving a few tenners under his nose. He has wisely spent some of the money on a Jaguar motor car which he drives, à la Toad of Toad Hall, around the verdant English countryside.

Before the Express, McIntyre worked on a variety of magazines, weekly and evening newspapers and the Press Association, the national news agency for the UK. He also had a less-than-illustrious career in the Westminster Bank until he left out of sheer boredom. It must be admitted, however, that his innumeracy did not further his career in the bank.

Strangely, he actually climbed the journalistic ladder to become Chief Sub-Editor of the Daily Express, a position he held for seven years. 

McIntyre is an expert on hooting, whistling and other silly noises, comfy chairs, pubs and the design of fart machines to break the ice at parties. He plays the banjo very badly and is a soloist on the duck whistle, which on one famous occasion he used to waken the duty night lawyer, Robin de Wilde, QC, who had fallen asleep at his desk after drinking in the apparent excitement of seeing a daily newspaper in production.

Mr de Wilde once found limited fame when he stood as Tory Candidate for Merthyr Tydfil, which was at the time the safest Labour seat in Britain. He lost handsomely. Mr de Wilde no longer works for the Express and fails to see the funny side of any of this. If you Google his name you will discover that he is now a greyhound - and a bitch at that. Life can be very confusing at times...

McIntyre has a long-suffering wife, three daughters, six grand-daughters and two grandsons.




© 2005-2022 Alastair McIntyre