Simon Hoggart

[fabrisse]

Living in Germany and Belgium in the 1980s was weird. In Germany, I had access to Stars and Stripes because I worked on a military base, but in Belgium there was no convenient newsagent with The International Herald-Tribune for daily news. Instead, I relied on a weekly trip to the Hauptbahnhof in Mannheim (about three miles by the route I walked) for The Observer and a local newsagent near the Parc du Woluwe in Brussels for the same august publication.

I read it cover to cover and found the British perspective on the US to be a bracing contrast to the right-skewing Stars and Stripes. I especially enjoyed the column written by their chief American correspondent, Simon Hoggart. I was heart-broken when he was posted back to Britain, but still read him faithfully.

He has died at only 67 of pancreatic cancer. I miss his incisive wit already. In many ways, his column was the sounding board that helped shape my opinions, sometimes in opposition, true, but the best tribute I can give him is that he always made me think.

ETA: The Guardian's front page had the years of his life. He was younger by a year than my first boyfriend, and that's something I find a little frightening, too.

Comments

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

The Economist and The Manchester Guardian Weekly are two ways I've done it before the WWW became my home. It's important to have perspective.