Peter Bee’s cryptic puzzlers

PETER B Macdonald was instrumental in setting up the NUJ’s East African Branch in the 1960s in Kenya, where he spent ten years with the East African Standard.

In 1971 he returned to Scotland and joined The Scotsman as a reporter. He covered both environmental matters and religious affairs, earning himself the nickname “the heaven and earth correspondent”. But he made his biggest mark as a cryptic crossword compiler, under the nom de plume Peter Bee. He was fascinated by words and their shades of meaning.

He left The Scotsman in 1990 to edit Life and Work, the magazine of the Scottish Kirk. He was a life member of the NUJ.

Chris Reekie

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists