Simon Hoggart: 'Sharp eye, dry wit… and the juiciest gossip'

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/12/simon-hoggart-tribute-donald-trelford

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Between his two long stints on the Guardian, which amounted to 33 years, Simon Hoggart, who died last week aged 67, spent a dozen years on the Observer between 1981 and 1993, winning numerous press awards as a feature writer, political columnist, television critic and Washington correspondent.

He brought to all these roles the same qualities that made him one of the very best parliamentary sketch writers of his time – a sharp eye, a pen that he wielded like a scalpel and a sense of humour that could be sardonic or warm, according to his mood and whether or not he liked the person he was writing about.

Although he was naturally a creature of the left – not surprising, perhaps, in the son of Professor Richard Hoggart, author of The Uses of Literacy and hero of the Lady Chatterley trial – he could be just as sharp about a Labour politician such as Tony Benn (a particular foe) or Neil Kinnock as a Tory grandee such as Willie Whitelaw or John Nott. Reporting the crisis debate on the eve of the Falklands conflict, he wrote: "At this darkest hour of his career the defence secretary, Mr John Nott, behaved as we have come to expect all the great politicians to behave – he made an ass of himself."

He was a shrewd and notably fair observer of Margaret Thatcher, even though he must have loathed her politics, and he penned a kindly but devastating requiem for Neil Kinnock after the 1992 general election. In both cases, he had done a great deal of leg work, talking to a wide circle of their friends and political colleagues.

Simon's copy (and his private conversation) was decorated with the anecdotes and juicy gossip he adored. Someone once said that talking to him in the office was like getting a preview of the coming issue of Private Eye. The funny stories were not just there for their own sake – though they helped to make him one of the most readable journalists of his generation – but because they illustrated a serious point.

Hoggart had come to the Observer's attention some years earlier, recommended by the paper's Ireland correspondent, Mary Holland, who was impressed by his coverage of the Troubles. But it took several years before we could make him an offer that would tempt him away from his beloved Guardian.

That was the promise of Washington correspondent when the job next became vacant. He covered Ronald Reagan's White House from 1985-89. It turned out to be inspired casting.

Simon had an uncanny understanding of the former actor, recognising not only that his "general air of a lovable old grandpop" was the secret of his popularity with the American people, but that this homeliness wasn't just an act, as people assumed, but exactly what the man was like.

"He is the first man," he wrote, "to make the presidency a part-time job, a means of filling up a few of the otherwise blank days of retirement."

His portrait of a laidback president, napping every afternoon and taking little interest in policy, eventually came to be recognised by his American media colleagues as the correct one, and Hoggart himself started appearing on television as "the Brit who knows our president better than we do". Out of this came one of his most successful books – America: a User's Guide.

Hoggart was a prolific writer, author of a wide range of books, from a biography of Michael Foot to a collection of round-robin Christmas letters, and for many years was wine correspondent of the Spectator. He was also a successful broadcaster, chairing Radio 4's The News Quiz for more than a decade.

He was married for 30 years to Alyson Corner, a clinical psychologist, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

Donald Trelford was editor of the Observer from 1975 to 1993

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