Danny Fortson

It’s hard to avoid the epithet ‘Shakespearean’ when reading about the dramatic final years of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s life. The Bard in this case is Danny Forston, the west coast correspondent for the Sunday Times, whose sustained and in-depth coverage of what was arguably the biggest business story of 2024 afforded him unprecedented access to the Lynch family and made him the global authority on the tragic tale.

The months Forston spent covering the story of Lynch’s trial (he’d been accused of masterminding a massive financial fraud at his company Autonomy) meant that shortly after his surprise acquittal Lynch granted him a world-exclusive interview.

In an emotional conversation, Lynch likened his trial and the prospect of a lifelong jail sentence to ‘a near-death experience’, and said he was now contemplating what to do with his ‘second life’.

That second life lasted just 74 days. Lynch and his daughter drowned in a freak storm off the coast of Sicily. Forston, the only journalist invited to the funeral, conveyed the family tragedy in heart-rending detail.

Judges praised Forston’s ability to engage readers in ostensibly dry stories with “intriguing and humanising details”. They concluded: “Great reporter, business specialist and feature writer.”