Former Telegraph and Independent journalist Adam Lusher has died aged 51.
Lusher worked as a journalist for more than 20 years until he joined oil and gas company Shell as an editor in 2019.
His career included 14 years at The Sunday Telegraph and four at The Independent where he worked most recently before moving to Shell.
David Marley, acting editor of The Independent, told Press Gazette: “Adam was a wonderful journalist, with a brilliant eye for colour and detail that made his stories shine.
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“He could turn his hand to anything, including hard news and deep-dive investigations, but it was his talent as a writer where he really excelled. Adam could always spot the detail or the phrase that made a story stand out.
“He was also a great presence in the newsroom – kind, generous and enthusiastic, never more so than when championing the work of younger colleagues. He will be missed.”
Lusher’s career began at the Argus in Brighton and then the National News Press Agency, and also included periods freelancing for national newspapers including The Independent, Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Sun, Evening Standard, and the Daily Express.
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Chris Logan, global head of editorial at Shell, first posted the news about Lusher’s death online on Linkedin. He said the journalist had “made his mark” at the company “as a hard-working, creative writer and a brilliant team player”.
Logan wrote: “His writing was rich because he pursued the colourful detail. In a story about the decommissioning of a North Sea oil platform, he wrote about three guitars and a ukulele found hidden in a roof. In the Annual Report, he wrote about the comics our Chair would read as a boy in the back of his GP father’s car while he was on his rounds. Far from the usual corporate fare.
“He brought the sharpest of journalistic eyes to all his work. Newspaper reporters used to be told: ‘Get the name of the dog.’ For Adam, the name of the dog would probably be his first question. It might just make his story.”
Lusher had written about his previous health battles, having been struck by a form of bone marrow cancer aged 37 and then suffering from the paralysis of Guillain-Barré syndrome during his recovery from a transplant. He spent 14 months in hospital until May 2010 but fought against the odds to make a good recovery and start a family.
But he remained vulnerable to infection and his health setbacks continued, Logan wrote: “He told me he was hoping for a lung transplant that would transform his life. He continued to work incredibly hard, wanting no allowances. He loved his job as an editor and speechwriter and was rigorous in his approach. ‘It’s the work that keeps me going,’ he often said.”
Matt Capon, a former colleague of Lusher’s at then-Independent owner ESI, told Press Gazette: “Adam was one of those people you knew from the first time you met him that he was only ever meant to be a journalist. He had that mix of humour, intelligence and charm that you could spot from across the newsroom.”
He recalled being at the homelessness charity Centrepoint in London for a visit by Jeremy Corbyn, saying they were in a communal kitchen for a photo opportunity with a dozen other journalists and photographers.
“I could tell that Adam wasn’t enamoured with what he was getting from it,” Capon said. “He asked me if I was ok to stick around ‘a bit longer’ which I immediately took as code for ‘Don’t go anywhere when this is done!’ and with that he made a move on getting some time with Corbyn away from the press pack. And lo and behold there we were, the four of us sat in a cramped room overlooking the road, and over the course of half an hour Adam managed to get the former Labour leader to open up about all manner of problems related to teenage homelessness.
“That was a lesson in tenacity and vision I will never forget. His loss is going to be felt by an awful lot of former colleagues.”
Other Independent stories of Lusher’s included an investigation into the “explosion” of racism that followed the Brexit vote and the time he lost at the World Pooh Sticks Championships to a baby.
Former Independent journalist Matt Murphy wrote on Twitter that Lusher was “one of the kindest, wittiest, and most talented writers I’ve worked with. We went on a number of trips together chasing down ridiculous news stories, and his advice and sardonic humour often made difficult times bearable”.
He recalled fondly a “mocking” alternative live blog Lusher ran for The Independent for Harry and Meghan’s 2018 royal wedding, and a story the two worked on together “on a trip to Totnes in Devon, where someone jokingly claimed the town to be a Brexit-free state independent from the UK”.
And Sunday Times royal editor Roya Nikkah said Lusher was a “brilliant journalist, beautiful writer, sharpest of wits and the kindest, gentlest soul I’ve known in journalism. Gone way too soon but never forgotten by those who were lucky enough to know him. Adam was the best”.
Picture: Linkedin
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