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Alan Stokes

Alan Stokes is a columnist and chief editorial writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, where he began in journalism compiling the weather and law lists in 1984. He has worked for major newspapers here and overseas as a Tokyo correspondent, day editor, night editor, features editor and chief sub-editor. He is the author of The Australian on Australia and has been awarded for his writing on human rights.

Anna and Tim Lawrence are leading a Proudly Pokies Free campaign

The siblings taking up their father's unfinished pokies fight

Last year these siblings lost their father, Kevin07 creator and Ka-Ching documentary maker Neil Lawrence. Now they are taking up his battle to help young people avoid gambling addiction and have access to more pokies-free entertainment like live music.

The death notice in the Herald that might lead to the vanished grandfather of Alan Stokes.

The hunt for my grandfather who vanished three times

Was he a philanderer? A conman? A park drunk who saw his grandchildren once then returned to an alcoholic miasma? Or did he have a loving family? Did his siblings have children – my second cousins? Did he have other bastards – my aunties and uncles?