VETERAN war correspondent John Simpson received an honorary degree from the University of Sussex yesterday.

He joined more than 1,800 students from 100 countries who received their degrees and diplomas at the Brighton Dome.

Also receiving honorary degrees were film-maker Andrea Arnold, Booker prizewinning novelist Graham Swift and Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life Investments Mr Simpson, a CBE, said: “It is an incredible honour, like the university awarding you a medal. It is the highest thing they can give.”

During his career, John has reported from more than 40 war zones as well as from the top of the Berlin Wall and avoiding bullets in Tiananmen Square.

He said: “I’ve had such a long career that I’ve forgotten most of it. I’ve often found myself in situations where I think ‘how the hell did I get here?’”

He said he has a long-standing interest in journalism: “I was writing for school newspapers and the like since I was very little, eight or nine I suppose.

“It’s been a very natural process. There wasn’t any stage where I thought, shall I be a train driver or shall I be a journalist?”

John’s career as a reporter began in 1970 at the BBC, and he has remained there since.

He said: “One advantage of getting old is people you knew as students or young would-be politicians go right through the system as you watch. There’s more than one president whom I knew or even employed as a translator or fixer.”

John has no intention of slowing down yet and loves his work. He said: “It’s difficult, it’s interesting and I’ve got friends everywhere.

“I don’t go anywhere new nowadays. For the most part, even unusual places in Asia or Africa, I’ve been there before and I know people. I don’t think I’ll ever stop, unless I’m in some terrible accident,or my leg falls off or something. I’ve got a child so I’ve got to keep on earning to keep him in electronic games.”

Speaking about The Argus, Mr Simpson said: “The Argus is absolutely what a local paper should be.”