We are back on the David Holden trail.
Way back in 1978, we took part in the investigation into the murder of the Sunday Times foreign correspondent David Holden (photo above), who was murdered at Cairo Airport in December 1977. Peter was one of the team of journalists dispatched by ST editor Harry Evans immediately after the murder to try to find out who had killed him and why. Peter visited the Middle East three times in this period, and as the inquiry widened, Leni helped in the investigations into Holden's time studying and working in the US. But all attempts to crack the mystery failed. Peter wrote a 30,000-word report on the inquiry for Harry Evans, but it was never published.
Now we have resumed the quest, in partnership with a young Sunday Times journalist, Emanuele Midolo ("Manu"), who was so fired up on hearing about the story that he proposed teaming up to see it through. He and Peter are writing a book together, with Leni's assistance, to be published in late 2024 or early 2025. Their inquiries are uncovering fascinating new material which leads into the territory where spies mixed with journalists and were sometimes the same person combined. Watch this space!
In 2019, Peter wrote an article for Byline Times summarising the story and spelling out lessons for investigative journalism. It espouses some theories about the case which Peter and Manu are considering, but it's safe to say that our beliefs have moved on since then.