Abstract
Bill Deedes, reporter, editor, columnist, Cabinet minister and decorated war hero, died on August 17 at the age of 94. In tribute to a journalistic icon, the British Journalism Review recalls Lord Deedes’ own memories of lifetime love affair with newspapers by publishing an extract from his 1997 memoir, Dear Bill (Macmillan). The extract concludes: “We go this way only once, and there seems so little time in which to explore the world and its wonders, to find out more about the human tragedy – or, as I more often find it, the human comedy – of which we are part. ‘Never forget,’ the Austrian poet Rilke said to his wife as he lay dying, ‘life is magnificent,’ and that is right. I believe there is a future life, but I do not let that discourage me from trying to get the most out of this one.”
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