Simon Winchester, the British-American journalist, author and former geologist, has died aged 82 after suffering a heart attack on his family farm in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. His wife, Setsuko Sato, confirmed the news. He died on Tuesday.
Career as a Foreign Correspondent
Born in London, Winchester spent most of his professional life as a foreign correspondent. He joined The Guardian in 1969 as a regional correspondent in Newcastle upon Tyne before becoming the newspaper's Northern Ireland correspondent. He covered significant events during the Troubles, including Bloody Sunday and the 1972 Belfast bombings, known as Bloody Friday.
While reporting for The Guardian in Washington, DC, Winchester covered the Watergate scandal, President Nixon's resignation and the beginning of Jimmy Carter's presidency. During this time he published his debut book, In Holy Terror, about his years reporting in Northern Ireland.
Imprisonment and Later Work
In 1982, while covering Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands for The Sunday Times, Winchester was detained on suspicion of spying and imprisoned for three months in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. He later worked as a freelance correspondent in the mid-1980s, travelling from London through Moscow, Irkutsk and Ulan Bator before taking up a new role in Hong Kong.
For the next 12 years he remained in China, rejoining The Guardian and taking on a freelance role as Asia Editor for the newly launched Condé Nast Traveler magazine. Winchester then relocated to New York.
Writing Legacy and Honours
Winchester wrote more than 30 books, with his big break coming in 1998 with The Professor and the Madman, about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. In the New Year Honours list for 2006 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to journalism and literature, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford, in October 2009.
