BROADCASTER and journalist Kenneth Roy died yesterday morning at the age of 73. He has been suffering from cancer and had told readers of the news magazine the Scottish Review that he was terminally ill.

Such bravery was typical of the man, and also typical was the obituary which the Review carried after the announcement of his death - Roy wrote it himself and did not spare his own reputation.

That reputation will be as a journalist first and foremost. He began with the defunct Falkirk Mail before enjoying a successful career in radio and newspapers, working for titles including The Herald, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.

He won the Columnist of the Year prize in the 1994 UK Press Gazette Awards and was well known also for his “Kenneth Roy’s Pocket Companion” for the back page of The Scotsman.

He was best known to the viewing public for his stint as a presenter on BBC Reporting Scotland, and as a radio broadcaster he founded West Sound.

He founded the Scottish Review and edited it for 24 years until his illness meant he could no longer work. He also worked with young people, create the Young Scotland Programme, an annual series of courses for the intellectual development of people in the early stages of their careers.

National columnist Pat Kane, described Roy as an “adventurer in media, journalism and letters,” adding that his life was a “salutary lesson in permanently being up for it.” Writer and academic Gerry Hassan said Roy was “a man of letters, spirit and principles.” Writing on Twitter, he said: “He was a unique force: a challenger of authority, a provocateur and a campaigner. And a nurturer of talent in others.”