The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
‘Horrible loss but an extraordinary legacy’: Journalist Simon Ricketts
Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to The Guardian and Observer journalist Simon Ricketts, who has died at the age of 50.
His partner, the screenwriter Andrea Gibb, announced his death on Twitter on Saturday evening.
“I’m so sad to let you know that our beloved Simon died earlier today,” she wrote.
“He endured a great deal over the past year, but he was Simon N Ricketts till the end; stubborn, funny, brave, kind and loving. He had the heart of a lion and we loved him very much.”
Ricketts, who had previously worked at the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Watford Observer, had lived with cancer for several years.
In 2016, after revealing that the disease had become life-limiting, he tweeted: “I consider myself lucky. I always have. I think of my life as a privilege.
“While this is probably a shorter time on the planet than I was hoping for, I cannot truly feel too cheated. I really can’t.”
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, said: “Simon was a wonderful Guardian journalist whose warmth and wit found a wide and appreciative audience on social media.
“He was an excellent, committed editor as well as a fun and loyal colleague. He maintained a fierce, gentle humanity in the face of great suffering. He will be deeply missed by everyone at The Guardian.”
Commentator and comedian Ayesha Hazarika tweeted a tribute to Ricketts on Saturday, linking to a podcast of his that she called “wonderful and poignant”.
The BBC’s media editor, Amol Rajan, said: “Wonder what Simon Ricketts, who has died, would have said and tweeted about trending in the UK (almost 2,000 tweets mentioned Ricketts’s name by 10pm on Saturday)?”
Rajan added: “Something instinctively clever, warm, humble and funny no doubt. One of the greats, and the best of blokes. The wisdom he spread should be an education for us all, just as he intended.”
Late on Saturday, Ricketts was trending on Twitter under the hashtag #BangingOut – a reference to the farewells traditionally given to British journalists retiring from newspapers, about which he had written.
Beauty journalist and Guardian columnist Sali Hughes tweeted: “Heartbroken about Simon Ricketts. His good humour, generosity and grace in the face of relentless personal injustice and discomfort was awe inspiring.
“He was lovely. And a brilliant writer who changed how I thought and felt about life. A horrible loss, but an extraordinary legacy.
“I think Simon was among lots of people’s first Twitter follows. He was everything that was, and occasionally still is, good and affirming about this place. Funny, warm, thoughtful. We could all be more like him.”