Hugh Massingberd: Hall of Fame Journalist

Sad news. Hugh Massingberd, the man who did more to bring obituaries to life than anyone else, is dead. He qualifies as one of the great journalists of our age.

My poor, old (not so old actually) and now dead Uncle David was one of his contributors and I recall answering the phone, aged 12 or so, during one of David’s rather extended stays at my parents’ house, to hear Mr Massingberd asking, politely, how the obituary of this or that not-yet-dead restaurateur*, wine merchant or horse trainer was progressing. “Fitfully” was the answer one learned to give, David being  incommunicado…

And now the begetter is gone too. Sic transit gloria mundi and all that. Just 60 too. Young.

Massingberd later wrote, “I determined to dedicate myself to chronicling what people were really like through informal anecdote, description and character sketch.”