Ivan Noble dies

The BBC reports the death on Monday at 37 of Ivan Noble from the brain tumour he has been writing about online for the past two years.

It was only very recently that he announced he had just written his last column. I didn’t know about his German connection (I knew his wife was German, but not that he studied German):

Ivan was born in Leeds in 1967 and was educated at comprehensive schools in Luton and Leeds before studying German at the University of Aston in Birmingham.

He lived in East Germany from 1988 until 1990 where he worked as a translator. After graduation he joined the BBC, initially as a translator, then as a sub-editor in Nairobi.

3 thoughts on “Ivan Noble dies

  1. Another sad, but brave, story like Ivan’s BBC colleague John Diamond, the late husband of Nigella Lawson and who wrote his way through cancer of the tongue that spread all over the place.

    I wonder where Ivan worked in East Germany. The translators I know all worked GDR days at Intertext VEB (now GmbH), the head office being close to Checkpoint Charlie/Friedrichstraße on the East Berlin side.

  2. I was shocked when I read about his death yesterday. When I read his last column, I thought he had become too poorly to write, I didn’t realise he was dying, although on reflection, it was pretty clear he was. I think it’s because I always believed he was going to beat cancer.

  3. @AMM: Yes, a lot of people have written about dying of cancer now, and weblogs too. John Diamond’s book (‘C’?) is very good. It was once recommended somewhere as one of the best science books of recent years. It wasn’t just about how he introduced alcohol directly into a tube below his throat at parties!
    Maybe obituaries will reveal where he worked.
    @Céline: I was surprised too – it was only later I saw that the last entry had been written in advance and kept for the time when he wouldn’t be able to go on writing.

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