John was born in Lancashire on 1st November 1947. He began his career in the newspaper industry as a journalist with the Sheffield Star before moving to London and the world of Fleet Street where in 1976 he became the Night Editor of Express Newspapers. From here it was onto Today Newspapers as Managing Editor. 1993 saw John return to Express Newspapers as Managing Editor before moving back to the Mirror Group in the same role where he remained for more than 10 years.
Finally, in 2009 John said good bye, giving up those roles to pursue his passion for destination travel on cruise ships. He travelled to every corner of the world on ships large and small, he became Mirror Travels columnist, Captain Greybeard where he told it as it was, he attracted readers in their thousands and I was one of them. As a new writer, I first met John on the cruise ship Black Watch in 2013 and was delighted to receive so much encouragement and advice from him which continued until his untimely passing. He was Roving Editor for World of Cruising magazine, ran his own blog ‘Captain Greybeard’ and this year won the ‘Contribution to Cruise Award’ set up by the industry body CLIA.
John died of lung cancer on the 15th October 2017 just 16 days before his 70th birthday. He was a gentleman, a walking encyclopaedia on cruising and cruise ships and a huge loss to the world of cruise journalism.
Goodbye Captain and thank you.
John Honeywell discusses the latest in cruising (2016)
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