Paul Brown, who has died aged 82, was a pioneering environment correspondent for the Guardian, and wrote on the subject for more than 40 years, continuing long after his retirement from the paper. His last column, published in November 2025, about the growing crisis of global warming, was written from his hospital bed in Luton, where he was being treated for terminal lung cancer, diagnosed only a few weeks earlier.
A quiet and gently spoken presence in the newsroom, often with a wry smile, Brown was a calm and unflustered figure and – which is not always the case in frenetic newsrooms – happy to help others, including younger journalists. He had done most jobs in newspapers, having started on local papers before graduating to Fleet Street as a reporter on the Sun in its raucous 1980s heyday. This was not necessarily then a likely or welcoming passport to the Guardian, as many of us recruited from the tabloids discovered on joining the paper. Paul’s professionalism, kindness and charm saw him through.
