KATE Adie is a nosey parker - and it has got her into some stupendous scrapes over the years, most of which we have all viewed from the safety of our cosy armchairs.

The BBC global "hot spot" reporter told of the joy she has gained from her work as a roving journalist.

And she explored some of the defining moments in her varied career not the least of which was as farming producer on a local radio station.

The reporter recently awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting has covered some of the world's greatest news stories in the past few decades. And she came to Gwent as guest speaker of the M4 Business Breakfast to share some of life's experiences and confirm she is not about to stop her global travelling just yet.

Born in Sunderland and educated at Newcastle University, she started working at the BBC in Durham.

She said she felt a fraud speaking at a lunch arranged by the training facilitator ELWa as virtually none of her education and training prepared her for what she eventually ended up doing.

In fact, after studying Scandinavian languages at university she ended up "spending her life with strange men in ditches" as part of her job as an a roving international reporter.

But she said: "One of the things that I have come across in my job as a journalist is that lifelong learning is what we are all about ... life is about learning and it is about going on a discovering new things."

She described how she had joined the BBC as a local radio minion and did odd jobs including digging the back garden at the radio station all the time learning her trade.

And when first introduced to a BBC tape recording machine "pushed at me across the table" by men in suits her retort was "what is it?" But she said many years later she found a note on her which read: "Appears enthusiastic and has lots of energy."

She said it is not just the qualifications on paper that make for a suitable person but what she called the "common sense" attributes of people which can be gleaned by simply meeting them.

She said she was not allowed in the newsroom of her first local radio station as she had a "fundamental problem - I was the wrong sex". Nevertheless she persevered and discovered the "absolute joy" of finding out what people do and think and to record them as programmes.

"The definition of a journalist really is that you are allowed to be a professional nosey parker to stick your nose into people's business and say 'tell me about it', it is an absolutely magical job to have."

She said she covered a range of programmes during the time and "never thought that a moment was wasted".

And that adage became true in the Balkans when she was billeted on a farm in the former pig byre.

The rookie reporter had for two-and-a-half years been the farm programme producer and twenty years later her skills came useful when asked to milk goats on a Bosnian farm.

Ms Adie dispelled ideas that BBC reporters are a cosseted lot and told how, as well as at times having to share basic accommodation of the agricultural kind with other hacks, she also had to fly to Sierra Leone for seven hours on the floor of a Hercules aircraft with "29 blokes - and I was old enough to be their grandmother".

And she spoke of the need for basic skills as a journalist and in employment generally.

"In journalism what it amounts to, when you are spending a lot of time in places like Bosnia, is that you find yourselves looking at each other and appraising each other's basic skills.

"When you look at the cameraman you want someone who is highly able on the technical side and also has an understanding of journalism but also has other basic skills to be able to survive in places like Sarajevo.

"My favourite cameraman is one who can stare at the field of sheep in the middle of Albania and say 'dinner' - and produce it later." Ms Adie said skills had to be developed such as bartering for food and fuel and also to make do in basic accommodation, first aid and also to look out for your colleagues.

Ms Adie said news works with small groups of people, perhaps five people, which has to be a group that you understand, that you care about and who you take notice of.

And she said: "You work with perhaps just one other going up the line. The reason is that if one of you takes a bullet it is easier for the other to drag that one person away to safety.

"You understand about fear and how you take decisions about danger - and when people are firing at you and other nasty things are happening nearby that is no time to 'discover' things about each other - you have to know each other."

And she said: "Everything I have ever done during my years in broadcasting has been a matter of learning, listening to people and watching what they have done and trying to understand how it has all worked out."

And she said how minds became focused when stuck behind a tree with a cameraman and a few other reporters in Bosnia with a "very unpleasant group of people" trying to winkle us out.

"This is when you try to think back to the learning and training that you had about the strength of a tree faced with a bullet and do bullets go through tree trunks..."

The ELWa Corporate Club is sponsored by the South Wales Argus. The Kate Adie event was sponsored by Newport council.