Her first job after studying English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, was at the Daily Express. She started in the Manchester office but moved to London and was given a column with the headline: "She's young, she's provocative and she's only 22."

She started to be given foreign jobs and, after a spell working freelance for magazines including Nova and Harper's and Queen, joined the Daily Mail.

She has reported widely on foreign events: the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela's release from jail and the coup against Gorbachev. Her work has taken her to Bosnia, Albania, El Salvador, Iraq and other dangerous parts of the world.

More recently she has reported on the Middle East crisis and has travelled to the Palestinian city of Ramallah to meet an Islamic terrorist who is said to be on Israel's "targeted assassination" list, Sheikh Hassan Yousef.

She is the winner of several British Press Awards and in October 1999 was awarded the prestigious James Cameron Award, given for "an outstanding contribution to journalism".

Ms Leslie received a British Press Awards commendation this year for foreign coverage.