John Le Carre invited few people to Tregiffian Cottage, his isolated home on the clifftops of Cornwall where he wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley’s People and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Yet Le Carre, (real name David Cornwall) let Olga Craig interview him at his sanctuary. After wrapping up formalities in time for a good lunch, they talked through the afternoon and way into the night, sharing memories, opinions and the best part of a bottle of whisky. Mrs Le Carre had to make up a bed for Olga since she had missed the last train to Truro.

That Olga had huge amounts of Northern Irish charm and wit about her, undoubtedly eased the interview process. But what really made her an outstanding journalist with such extraordinary range and depth, was that she always asked the right questions. She would gently and persistently peel back the layers until she got to the heart of the story before hitting the keys of what became known as ‘Olga’s Golden Typewriter’. At great speed and often under intense pressure, she would always produce immaculate copy whether profiling a celebrity, picking through the aftermath of a bombing or writing up a report in the less-than-ideal conditions of a foreign conflict.

Olga’s interviewing and reporting were legendary and the products of her fierce intelligence, lack of prejudice, immense curiosity, an innate sense of fairness and compulsion to tell the story as it was. She was never in awe of anyone and had a special sort of courage that was both physically daring and moral. As a rebellious schoolgirl, Olga would cheekily outwit the headmaster, then in a career in newspapers that lasted more than forty years, she would neatly side-step a publicist’s demands with the same self-assurance that got her past the gunmen of Northern Ireland and Iraq.