Robert Peston: ‘People said I looked tense, but it had nothing to do with the financial crisis’

While reporting for the BBC on the 2008 meltdown, Robert Peston was also facing personal tragedy. He talks about the pain of losing his wife to cancer, adrenaline addiction - and the haircut that spawned its own Twitter account

A year or so ago, Robert Peston got a new job, and immediately felt rather unwell. After 30 years as an influential business and political reporter in Fleet Street, and eight as the BBC's business editor, reporting on the biggest financial story in half a century and breaking scoops so significant that he was at times accused of singlehandedly shifting the markets, he moved to become the broadcaster's economics editor, and to a suddenly, shockingly, quieter life.

Though still busy, the release from the rat-a-tat round of results, bonuses and resignations meant he was rarely called upon to be on hand all day, from the Today programme in the morning to the Ten O'Clock News at night, as had been commonplace before. The abrupt change of rhythm, he says, left him feeling "almost physically ill for a few weeks, and I was trying to work out what the hell was going on".

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