OBITUARY: GEOFFREY GOODMAN

I'm sad to hear of the death of Geoffrey Goodman, the left-wing journalist who was one of the greatest supporters of and contributors to Tribune, at the age of 91. I never knew him well, but he did reviews for me at Tribune and we met over lunch at the Gay Hussar many times in the company of others. He was a legend – a veteran of the Communist Party (which he left in 1951 over Tito, I think, though others have it as 1956 over Hungary), the Bevanite movement, the News Chronicle of the 1950s, the Daily Herald and Odhams' Sun in the 1960s, the Daily Mirror in its 1970s "golden age", one of the labour correspondents that were must-reads when trade unions mattered a lot – and he was a fantastic writer and very kind. There's an obituary in the Guardian by Mike Molloy here, with an appreciation by Ian Aitken here. Dennis Kavanagh's warm obituary in the Independent, here, includes a howler that Goodman would have picked up with glee (note to Independent subs: it was the Daily Mail that took over the News Chronicle). Here is the Mirror's tribute. RIP.