The political columnist Simon Hoggart has died. He worked for The Guardian continually from 1968 to 2013. In 2008 He had the unmitigated pleasure of meeting me at the Cartoon Museum in London during the Press launch of the 70th birthday of The Beano, being one of several journalists I met and was interviewed by that day. He was delighted to tell me that he used to look forward to reading The Beano during the late 50s/early 60s, sitting on the bridge by his school, legs dangling over the parapet, and especially liked The Bash street Kids, who he was still able to name! He introduced me to James Naughtie of BBC radio (also a closeted Beano-ite!) and wrote a lovely article about it, mentioning me by name and recounting our converstaion in his next Guardian column. I'd been to a recording of his radio show, the News Quiz in 2001, where the guests included then-Spectator editor, now Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, BBC Political editor, John Sergeant, also a Beano reader, and the late Linda Smith, who was surprisingly mute offstage. Anyway, I was sorry to hear Simon Hoggart died yesterday, his dry political commentary was always very amusing.
Read his obituary here
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