Your piece ‘Day in the life of a 24-hour global news factory’ revived memories of my only visit to the Nature office (see go.nature.com/2k9scd1). The occasion was in the early 1980s, when John Maddox was in his second term as editor-in-chief and he invited me to report news stories from India for the journal. He wrote many himself, one of which included an interview with Indira Gandhi, the country’s prime minister at the time (see Nature 308, 582; 1984).

When I met the great man again, he was in hospital being treated for a leg injury. He passed his days there avidly reading, writing and editing as usual. I enquired after his secret of being able to write such insightful editorials on a host of topics — ranging from physics to philosophy — week after week. His reply was that he always firmly shut his office door, allowing no phone calls or other interruptions until he had completed his next editorial.