We report with great sadness the death, in a tragic horse-riding accident a few days after Christmas, of Brilliant magazine editor Helen Bain.

Helen was the magazine’s founding editor, a task to which she brought the zeal, flair and insightful writing that had characterised her journalistic career. While reporting for the Dominion she became that rare creature, a female motoring writer, later political editor for the Sunday Star Times, and more recently communications manager with Forest & Bird.

In her editorial notes in the latest issue of Brilliant, Helen wrote of the inspirational figures who featured in its pages. This modest, yet Qantas Media Award-winning, writer would have laughed at the idea of being inspirational herself, yet to the small team who bring Brilliant into your mailbox or laptop that’s an apt description; whether for her consummate journalism, her powerful intellect, her feisty advocacy for the environment, or her passion to squeeze every last drop of value out of each day.

Helen will be sorely missed. We express our deepest sympathy to her partner Mark Round, her family, and her legion of friends.