Booker’s Farewell
By Paul Homewood
Sadly Christopher Booker has had to give up his column for the Sunday Telegraph because of ill health.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/31/farewell-telegraph-readers-60-wonderful-years/
I have been aware of his health problems for some months now. Nevertheless it is still a shock to read his final column.
It tells us about his links to the Telegraph which go back 60 years to his first job with them, writing reviews of jazz records, then joining the newly launched Sunday Telegraph as a jazz critic in 1961.
Since then he has gained fame as the first editor of Private Eye, scriptwriter for That Was The Week That Was, before rejoining the Telegraph with a monthly Saturday column in 1972.
But it was his Sunday column which probably brought him most fame. As he writes today:
One of my guiding principles as a journalist had long been to bring to light what I considered to be some shockingly important story which was not being properly covered elsewhere. And one of the reasons I have been very grateful to The Sunday Telegraph is the unusual freedom it gave me to pursue a long succession of such campaigning stories, if necessary for years on end.
From the EU to global warming, and bureaucracy to the BBC, we will all miss his insights and willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.
He will be sorely missed.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Sad day indeed. However CB should know his column has brought pleasure to many and has indeed highlighted many serious issues which may otherwise have remained hidden
Thank you for making a difference
Sally Swaffield
Yes, he will be sorely missed. A voice of common sense so rarely heard these days.
His regular column in the Sunday Telegraph was always the first one to read.
Seconded.
And again
Indeed, his column was the reason why I bought the Sunday Telegraph each week, and likewise, was the first column I read each Sunday. The paper needs to realise that the journalistic freedom that they gave to Mr Booker made a huge contribution to their sales each week; it will be difficult for them to replace him. Thank you Mr Booker for making such a rare contribution to common sense journalism in our growing politically correct world, over so many years: We all wish you well in what we hope will be a complete recovery from your current health problems.
He has been a consistently powerful analyst of the challenges facing our society and mankind. His understanding of the realities of climate change, decarbonisation and, most presciently, the EU farce have been persuasively communicated with great flair. He should have been our chief negotiator to face Barnier.
May his health improve and permit a happy and long retirement.
I fully endorse these comments. A box full of his articles cut from the paper over the years lies on my bookshelf. Who will be the voice of sanity and reason on global warming now? I add my best wishes for a return to good health.
I too had such a box of his stuff but sadly no more due to numerous moves that had an attritional effect on my memorabilia
I think we all endorse the comments left here and will feel that sense of despair when we turn to find the column is not there. I’ve never begrudged anyone holidays but I’ve always yearned that he finish his and get back. I like many it appears have tried to store his articles because despite the wonder of the internet there is still something about print! Is there a printed collection?
Sad, sad news.
Sorry to read this. You have channeled him often on your blog. What bastions of truth do you have left in the press?
Much to my surprise + annoyance I find myself cheering on Piers Morgan occasionally these days but CB he ain’t.
– we’re all going to have to do it sometime – but best wishes to CB – you will be missed every Sunday.
A terrible loss to the world of sanity.
One of the main-stays of honest British journalisim, I have enjoyed his writings for many years. Christopher Booker made me think….for that I am grateful.
Christopher Booker is one of the very few brave and honest journalists to speak the truth on climate science, a task we collectively must continue to address – Jim O’Brien
He surely will, I only bought the Sunday Telegraph for his column. And let’s hope he doesn’t have to wait too long to see his critical words on AGW vindicated.
Indeed he will be sorely missed. At one stage, many years ago, I gave up reading his column because was so depressing to read about the corruption in the EU that he kept unearthing. Of course he has covered so much more corruption, whether it is the climate change scam or the BBC etc etc. I sincerely hope he makes a full recovery.
Agreed Paul! We wish him a full and speedy recovery!
May I wish a speedy recovery to good health for Mr.Booker. I less voice of sanity in what is a world of increasing madness…..it will be sorely missed.
Sad indeed. A journalist with integrity is rare these days.
And even rarer is one with the sagacity and the ability to check facts.
I, too, wish him a long and happy retirement.
Yes, I totally agree with your sentiments, the last great Journalist.
I have his books in my collection. Brilliant writing. His columns were a must-read and I still celebrate having commented on his 30,000 comment article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11426889/Expert-team-plans-to-examine-adjusted-temperature-data.html#disqus_thread (with a different name then!)
Sad day for pioneering journalist we will miss his honest and forthright insisive reporting
A great man , I too, primarily bought the Sunday Telegraph for his common sense column.
I absolutely agree that Chris will be sorely missed – he has been my main reason for buying the Sunday Telegraph – and I too wish him a full recovery and happy retirement. I shall now look back through all his pieces that I’ve kept a record of over the years.
Booker sowed the seeds of scepticism in my thinking many years ago. His column introduced me to WUWT long before the ClimateGate scandal. In fact, many years later he probably made me aware of our host.
I also enjoyed his informed comments on the EU and BBC, subjects on which I am passionate for all the wrong reasons. Booker has been a major influence on my life. He has inspired me to fight the same causes and he helped to provide the ammunition.
I am no expert on journalism, but I like to think of Booker as Old School. He researched his subject, He checked his facts. He got it right before he published. (BBC take note).
His column will be sadly missed. Thank you, Christopher Booker and I do hope you can enjoy many more years monitoring your legacy.
I would like to echo both the experience and the sentiment. Doesn’t seem much point in buying the Sunday Telegraph any more.
I always made a point of reading Christopher Booker because he had no axes to grind and just gave the facts with concise a way of explanation. He must be disappointed that his accurate and well read views on global warming have failed to change the hysterical group think on the subject..
Thankyou Chris. Wife and I have read your column every week for many years now. Europe, Green fantasies and those depressing secret child courts – all gave us hours of discussion in my house.
Suspect that you are the chief promoter of Paul’s excellent blog – so well done for that too.
Indeed, a true gentleman and a scholar. Had the pleasure of meeting him many moons ago with regard to a non climate related case and his sense of decency, fair play and enthusiasm to see that justice prevailed in that particular matter was inspirational. A sharp mind, a razor wit and, his lone fencing in the MSM, against the hordes of Mongolesque type climate alarmism drivel that we are treated to on a daily basis, made the purchasing of any oracle that he was contributing to an absolute pleasure, even when shunted to the back pages! You will be sorely missed Christopher and I wish you well in your retirement. Would it be too much to hope for that the Telegraph had a suitably like minded ‘Sorcerer’s Aprrentice’ lined up to fill your shoes?
You will be sorely missed Mr Booker. Thank you for all your common sense and sense of fairness. – from energy and climate to family courts, and the BBC, it is not being sycophantic to say I can’t remember a word I disagreed with.
The Very Best of Wishes
I had a mention in his dispatches, when about twenty years ago, the BBC weather people announced that ‘5 millilitres of rain had fallen on Braintree’, when commenting on a particularly heavy rainfall. A whole teaspoons worth! I faxed CB with the chapter line and verse and he ‘phoned me as I was working on a job in a ladies hairdressing salon in Longridge, Preston. Remember the call like yesterday. He was grateful for a small piece to fill his forthcoming column in the Sunday Telegraph. Sadly lost the cutting during many moves after that. He sounded quite the man, I felt I should have been standing to attention.
Agree with all other comments. Best wishes to CB for now and in the future.
WE can rely on this blog at least.
Thanks to Mr Booker for many many fine articles.
Our Lord calls to us all.
Please enjoy your retirement with gusto.
With the general feeling that’s it’s a sad day for our pluralistic society where CB has to retire.
I shall miss your columns, like a goid friend I don’t always agree but I thoroughly enjoy
the exchange of thought
A huge loss to truthful informed journalism. If only journalists would take the trouble to learn some simple science before reporting on climate change. Christopher Bookers own book is so accessible even to journalists who are ignorant of the most basic science. It’s not difficult.
Unfortunately he blotted his copybook somewhat by veering away from his initial stance on the EU (the force behind so much climate change guff, political correctness, et al). He wrote concisely, lucidly but seemed, at times, to be a radical when it suited his publisher.
His stance was always to leave the EU but he quantified that by saying we should leave sensibly which put him at odds with the Telegraph’s ignorant Brexit drivel.
I wonder whether the Telegraph would be prepared to consider him for a well deserved honour in a forthcoming list of awards?
National Treasure.
As a contrast to the work of Christopher Booker, I give you a quote from CNN’s President Jeff Zucker following the release of the Muller Report on what was a hoax to bring down a President of the United States.
Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, said he was “entirely comfortable” with the network’s coverage. “We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,” Mr. Zucker said in an email
We definitely need more Christopher Bookers and far fewer Jeff Zuckers.
A proper journalist would check facts before publishing them….but then that would have meant no left-wing media witch hunt.
Precisely. Seven eighths of what they publish or say would go unpublished or unsaid.
GWPF has a non-paywalled copy:
https://www.thegwpf.com/christopher-booker-my-last-column-after-60-wonderful-years/
Oops, not the whole thing, just the first twenty paragraphs.
Just sign up for a free account which allows you to read a small amount of premium content. I have 2 accounts to be able to read his column, except for when he was censored on his Brexit content by the bosses.
It is a measure of the unenlightened times we live in that so few journalists have come closed to Christopher Booker in exposing the major scandals of our age, in particular the corruption of the EU and the preposterous climate change scare.
One of his outstanding Telegraph articles on climate change, “The scandal of fiddled global warming data” written in June 2014 but apparently no longer online at the Telegraph amassed an unprecedented total of over 12,000 reader comments.
They broke the mould when they made him.