A senior reporter at The Royal Gazette was recognised for his skill in informing readers about the lives of others when he won a Best of Bermuda award.

Jonathan Bell, the newspaper’s Chief Obituary Writer, was grateful to be given the accolade for journalism by The Bermudian magazine.

He said: “I was just bowled over by it, to be honest.

“I’m not the type of guy that’s done many of these dramatic, investigative types of series that really get public attention.

“I was very flattered by it. It was very kind of them.”

Mr Bell was described in The Bermudian as “an excellent news journalist” but was singled out for his “exceptional obituary writing”.

The magazine added: “His is not an easy job, yet Bell manages to capture the best of people and celebrate their lives in a way that means so much to their loved ones.”

One judge said: “It’s such a beautiful thing. He’s talking to us and telling us about them.

“You think you knew someone, and then you read amazing things about that person.”

The magazine continued: “Writing with insight and sensitivity, Bell reveals the lives of ordinary people to be, at the same time, extraordinary.”

Dexter Smith, the Editor of the Gazette, said this week: “I am not sure how many things I’ve got right since becoming Editor, but appointing JB as Chief Obituary Writer is definitely one of them.

“Empathy, patience and a gentle touch are essential tools when engaging grieving loved ones.

“Inevitably, Jonathan gets it right in sensing the mood and striking the appropriate tone. For that, he deserves high praise.”

Mr Bell’s journalism career started 30 years ago when, fresh from school, he became an intern at the Mid-Ocean News.

He soon found out “people are really much more interesting” than his 18-year-old self had earlier believed.

Mr Bell added: “As a teenager, having to interview strangers and talk to people who don’t necessarily want to be speaking to a reporter is a great cure for social anxiety, so I began to quickly feel a lot more relaxed in a way that I hadn’t before, and I just liked it.”

After a short stint at the Gazette in 1999, he joined the daily newspaper full time in 2010.

Although becoming an obituary writer was not planned or deliberate, Mr Bell said the practice came naturally to him.

He explained: “I had to learn a whole different type of news for working in a daily newsroom, but I brought the kind of weekly, community-paper skill to it.

“That’s not always ideal if you’re having to grill somebody — although sometimes a congenial way of grilling somebody does work quite nicely — but that sort of soft-voice congeniality can work quite well with people who have lost someone.

“In a practical sense, there are the challenges of not making any mistakes; getting all the information possible, which can be quite difficult; and finding out enough about someone to try to achieve the impossible, which is to sum up a person.”

Mr Bell said that he aimed to strike a balance between being relaxed and respectful when he spoke to family and friends of the deceased “without making the process too difficult for them”.

He added: “As I’m interviewing someone, the pieces of the story start to arrange themselves in my head.

“It is, I guess, a bit of instinct, as well as how I would like my own life to be told in 700 words.”