Who is Alastair "Talky" Tudsbury from War and Remembrance and what is their importance?

Alastair is Pam's father and a British war correspondent. Talky is a well-respected journalist for the most part and is invited to visit many war sites and to interview many of the important war figures of the day. As he grows older, Pam takes on more of the duties of his writing and does some of her own, though she will later admit she does not have the flair for writing Talky had. Talky was to travel to a war site with Pam but decided at the last moment to go without her. He was killed by a land mine and Pam believed it to be a premonition of his death that prompted the change.