Simon David Hoggart (26 May 1946 – 5 January 2014) was an English journalist and broadcaster. He wrote on politics for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and on wine for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''. Until 2006 he presented ''

The News Quiz ''The News Quiz'' is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4. History ''The News Quiz'' was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently, it was chaired by Barry Took from 1979 to 1981, Simon Hoggart from ...

'' on BBC Radio 4. His journalism sketches have been published in a series of books.

Personal life

Simon Hoggart was born on 26 May 1946 in

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, and educated at

Hymers College Hymers College is a co-educational independent day school in Kingston upon Hull, located on the site of the old Botanical Gardens. It is one of the leading schools in the East Riding of Yorkshire and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistres ...

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

, Wyggeston Boys' School in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, and then

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

, where he excelled at history and English. He was the son of the literary scholar and sociologist

Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was a British academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...

, and Mary Holt Hoggart. His brother is the ''

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...

'' television critic

Paul Hoggart Paul Hoggart is a British journalist and novelist. Early life and career Hoggart spent some years as a further education lecturer at Kingsway College and then Woolwich College in London before moving into journalism as a book reviewer, feature ...

. He lived in South London with his wife, Alyson, a

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

, and their two children, Amy and Richard. He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in mid-2010 and died of the disease at

Royal Marsden Hospital The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...

on 5 January 2014.

Career

Hoggart joined ''The Guardian'' in 1968, later becoming the American correspondent for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', and occasional guest commentator on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

's ''

Weekend Edition Saturday ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

''. Having written on politics for some years in ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' magazine, Hoggart became the Parliamentary sketch writer for ''The Guardian'' in 1993. He also wrote a wine column for ''

''. Hoggart's sketchwriting prowess was still admired into the 2010s – ''

Total Politics ''Total Politics'' is a British political magazine described as "a lifestyle magazine for the political community". It was first published in June 2008, and is distributed freely to all MPs, MEPs, peers, political journalists, members of the S ...

'' note that in 2011 Hoggart had "been a regular tormenter of the prime minister," (

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

) "especially on the sensitive issue of the PM's bald patch, which Hoggart compared to "a goujon of plaice" from

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

." In the early 1980s he chaired the radio comedy show ''The News Quiz'', returning to the show in 1996 for another ten years. In March 2006, Hoggart presented his last edition of ''The News Quiz'' commenting: "I'm getting a bit clapped out and jaded, and I think that's beginning to show." In 1998 he was part of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's 5-part political satire programme ''Cartoons, Lampoons and Buffoons''. He was also a contributor to the '' Grumpy Old Men'' and wrote for ''

'' magazine and an occasional column for ''

New Humanist ''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by the Rationalist Association in the UK, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective. History The ''New Humanist'' has been in print for more than 13 ...

'' magazine (last entry May 2005). Hoggart was also an occasional celebrity panellist on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's antiques quiz show '' Going, Going, Gone''. His published books form an eclectic list, including debunking the supernatural, anecdotes about

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, a biography, his thoughts about the United States, a serious political review and collected Christmas

round-robin letter A round-robin letter or Christmas letter is a letter, typically included with a Christmas card and sent to multiple recipients at the end of the year, in which the writer describes the year's events for themselves and/or their family. The round- ...

s. He coined the phrase "the law of the ridiculous reverse", "which states that if the opposite of a statement is plainly absurd, it was not worth making in the first place". When speculation appeared in the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

'' in December 2004 suggesting he was the "third man" in the

Kimberly Quinn Kimberly Quinn (formerly Fortier; ''née'' Solomon; born 1961) is an American journalist, commentator and magazine publisher and writer; latterly the publisher of British conservative news magazine ''The Spectator''. Early life A native of Lo ...

affair, Hoggart initially denied any involvement before issuing a statement admitting that he had an extra-marital affair with Quinn before her own marriage. The political

sex scandal Public scandals involving allegations or information about possibly immoral sexual activities are often associated with the sexual affairs of film stars, politicians, famous athletes, or others in the public eye. Sex scandals receive attention ...

involving Quinn contributed to the resignation of

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

from the Cabinet.

Works

Books

*Simon Hoggart, ''House of Fun'', Guardian Books (2012) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart, ''Send Up the Clowns'', Guardian Books (17 October 2011) *Simon Hoggart, ''A Long Lunch: My Stories and I'm Sticking to Them'' John Murray (14 October 2010) *Simon Hoggart, ''Life's Too Short to Drink Bad Wine'' Quadrille Publishing Ltd (18 September 2009) *Simon Hoggart, ''The Hands of History: Parliamentary Sketches 1997–2007'' (2007) *Simon Hoggart and Emily Monk, ''Don't Tell Mum: Hair-raising Messages Home from Gap-year Travellers'' by Atlantic Books (27 December 2006) *Simon Hoggart, ''The Hamster That Loved Puccini: The Seven Modern Sins of Christmas Round-Robin Letters'' (2005) *Simon Hoggart, ''The Cat That Could Open the Fridge: A Curmudgeon's Guide to Christmas Round-Robin Letters'' (2004) *Simon Hoggart, ''Punchlines: A Crash Course in English with John Prescott'' (2003) , on Prescottese language *Simon Hoggart, ''Playing to the Gallery: Parliamentary Sketches from Blair Year Zero'' (2002) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart and Steve Bell, ''Live Briefs: A Political Sketch Book'' (1996) , parliamentary sketches, with the ''Guardian'' political cartoonist *Simon Hoggart, ''House of Correction'' (1995) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart and Mike Hutchinson, ''Bizarre Beliefs'' (1995) , on "the human desire to believe the unbelievable" *Simon Hoggart, ''America: A User's Guide'' (1991) , on his experiences living in the United States *Simon Hoggart (editor), ''House of Cards: A Selection of Modern Political Humour'' (1988) *Simon Hoggart, ''House of Ill Fame'' (1985) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart, ''Back On the House'' (1982) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart, ''On the House: The Personalities and the Politics From the Irreverent "Punch" Column'' (1981) , parliamentary sketches *Simon Hoggart and David Leigh, ''Michael Foot: A Portrait'' (1981) , biography of politician

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

*Simon Hoggart and Alistair Michie,''The Pact: The Inside Story of the Lib-Lab Government, 1977-8'' (1978) * Bryan McAllister and Simon Hoggart, ''Little Boxes: A Selection of Bryan McAllister Cartoons From "The Guardian"'' (1977)

Audiobooks

*''The News Quiz: The First 25 Years (

BBC Radio Collection AudioGO (formerly BBC Audiobooks) was a publisher of audiobooks and a range of spoken word and large-print titles. It was majority owned by AudioGO Ltd, and minority owned by BBC Worldwide. It was formed in 2010, when AudioGO purchased a majori ...

)'' (2003) *''Simon Hoggart's Pick of "The News Quiz": Vol 2'' (2002) *''Simon Hoggart's Pick of "The News Quiz": Vol 1'' (2000)

References

External links

Column archive
at ''

''
Simon Hoggart's week
parliamentary sketch series at ''

''
Column archive
at the ''

''
The News Quiz
at ''

'' * * *
5 minutes with Simon Hoggart
on ''Hot Dinners'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoggart, Simon 1946 births 2014 deaths 20th-century British journalists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century British journalists 21st-century English male writers Alumni of King's College, Cambridge BBC Radio 4 presenters Deaths from cancer in England Deaths from pancreatic cancer English male journalists English radio personalities

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

People educated at Hymers College People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys People from Ashton-under-Lyne The Guardian journalists Writers from Lancashire