Peter Edward Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester, MBE PC (25 March 1932 – 23 June 2010)

Martyn Richard Jones — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:24:54 GMT

The following is an amended post I wrote on The Guardian on the 22^nd June 2010, and before I heard the news of the death of Peter Walker.

Peter Edward Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester, MBE PC (25 March 1932 – 23 June 2010)

I was saddened to read the news of the death of Peter Walker, I considered him to be one of the truly decent people of British Conservatism, even if I disagreed with some of his views:

In my youth I was a Labour Party Young Socialist member, I worked on Trades Councils, was Press Officer for a whole and took part in activities at the local constituency Labour Party offices. I have no qualms in saying I was one of the favoured young socialists of the excellent City Mayor, Albert Wilkes, who encouraged me to actively participate in the party.

I scrutinised votes at elections, and from time to time was told to hold the Labour HQ fort in my city. This usually happened when an election count was on – I was only 17 when I started to participate in these events, and I felt quite proud that senior members of the Labour Party placed their trust in me. Although to be quite frank, when the calls from Labour central office in London came through during the evening, to me in Worcester, it made me, on those nights, and many years ago, quite awed but not quite overwhelmed. After all, they talked my language.

One day, I was perhaps 14 or 15, I was on my bicycle delivering Labour Party party election propaganda to houses, it was a lovely balmy evening. A Jaguar pulled up beside me. "Where is the Grammar School" asked the driver, quite brusquely I thought. I looked into the car, a big luxurious car for its time. Peter Walker was in the back seat. He leaned forward and – like the gent he was - politely corrected his driver "young man" he says, "would you be so kind as to tell us where the school is, it would be so helpful, we are quite late", he smiled. I said "of course", and then "before you go will you take this leaflet from the Labour candidate". Peter Walker did take my leaflet, with more than good grace, and not only that, said something along the lines of "if only more young people in Britain took the same interest in politics and the elections, and their city".

I know Peter Walker had some bad press, but I will always respect him for the kind words he had for me, and his invitation to visit parliament.

I will probably never vote Tory, but I will always say that Peter Walker was an absolute gent.

I have nothing more to state; other than to pass on my most sincerest condolences to all those people who will miss him.

Mario Benedetti, 1920 To 2009

Martyn Richard Jones — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:30:00 GMT

Mario Benedetti, 1920 To 2009

The Uruguayan writer Mario Orlando Hamlet Hardy Brenno Benedetti Farugia, better known as Mario Benedetti, is no longer with us. Born in the small town of Paso de los Toros in the department of Tacuarembó, on the 14th of September 1920, he died in his home in the city of Montevideo, this last Sunday (17/5/2009), at the age of 88.

Although relatively little known in the English-speaking world, Benedetti was widely appreciated in the Spanish-speaking world. He was the author of over eighty books of poetry, novels, short stories and essays, as well as screenplays, and was awarded the Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana (1999), the Premio Iberoamericano José Martí (2001) and the Premio Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (2005).

Following a succession of jobs, Benedetti started his literary life in 1945, when he joined the staff of Marcha, a Uruguayan magazine, and worked alongside Juan Carlos Onetti and Carlos Quijano, both well known writers in their own right in Latin America and Spain. The following year he married Luz López Alegre, his companion and the great love of his life.

Following the Military Coup in Uruguay in 1973, Benedetti was forced into exile, which was to last for 10 years, up until his return to his native country in March of 1983. In that time in exile he lived in various places, including Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba and Spain. Two years later, the popular Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat recorded the ground-breaking album El Sur También Existe (The south also exists), a collection of Benedetti's poems set to music, in which the poet personally collaborated in its making.

Of his literary output perhaps the work that really stands out are his early titles, such as Montevideanos (1959), which describes the life of civil servants in the Uruguayan capital, with their sense of hierarchy and morals. In his novels La Tregua (1960), which was adapted for theater, radio and television, and made into a film in 1974, Gracias por el Fuego (1963), also adapted for film. In 1971 he published El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel ( 1971), a novel in verse, the critical purpose of which is to reveal characters and state of affairs thatwould expose the mediocrity of bourgeois values in an urban context.

In parallel, Benedetti developed a reputation for his outstanding work as a poet, and collected, expanded and edited an anthology of poetry under the title "Inventory", a collection that consists of representative titles such as " Poemas de la oficina " (1956), " Próximo prójimo " (1965) and " A ras de sueño ", published in 1967. In 1981 he wrote " Geografías ", a book inspired by the motivation behind exile, which brough together stories and poems in one single masterful work of literature.

In 1975, Benedetti's novel La Tregua (The Truce) was later made into a film, which was subsequently nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Film. He also later collaborated Daniel Viglietti, a Uruguayan singer-songwriter , in the making of the album A Dos Voces.

Benedetti had always been politically aware, and in January 2006, he was to join other distinguished figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, Eduardo Galeano, Carlos Monsiváis, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Pablo Milanés, Mayra Montero, and Ana Lydia Vega, to demand sovereignty for Puerto Rico .

As for myself, I had the good fortune to meet Benedetti several times when I lived in Spain during the eighties and early nineties. After 1983, Benedetti was to divide his time between Montevideo and Madrid. He was a generous, warm and modest person, who loved to share time with his readers. Many people have contributed his widespread literary success to his discreteness and his straightforward manner and the direct way he had of connecting and communicating with his readers.

From his literature, and from talking with the man himself, it was very easy to understand why he became considered to be one of the most representative of Latin American writers of a generation that was politically committed to the Cuban Revolution and Latin America, and which also lead to his recognition by the Latin American left.

José Saramago, in praising the literary excellence and humanity of Benedetti, and his ability to communicate with many people, also lamented the loss of a friend and a brother: "He always held the ingenuous idea that you can postpone the inevitable, but we cannot, and when the inevitable arrives, as with Mario Benedetti, it's very hard". Saramago also praised the diversity of the works of Benedetti: "He wrote everything, he had an extraordinary capacity for work and, with his genius, his talent and courage, and we can say that it has been very beautiful work".

On hearing the news of Benedetti's death, the Spanish poet José Manuel Caballero Bonald declared that Benedetti had "united poetry and history in a very skilful and intelligent form" and that an outstanding aspect of his work was that of social critique, powerfully underscored by its intelligence.

His last published work was a book of poems, Testigo de Uno Mismo (One's Own Witness), which came out last August. Immediately prior to his death, Benedetti had been working on a new book of poetry whose working title was Biografía Para Encontrarme (Biography to find myself).

To paraphrase the words of Saramago, perhaps the greatest thing about Benedetti, as a writer, is that he was the poet who best represented the genuine voice of his own people. He was a person for whom all language and all of its words were poetic. He strove to tirelessly and persistently search for a meaning, a purpose and a sense of life, in the human condition, on the planet, in the country, in the towns and villages, at home or simply in collective and popular action. In other words, Benedetti was a universal poet, a poet for all humanity, and a truly extraordinary human being.

Mario Benedetti : 14 de septiembre de 1920, Paso de los Toros - 17 de mayo de 2009

Obituario

Peter Edward Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester, MBE PC (25 March 1932 – 23 June 2010)

Mario Benedetti, 1920 To 2009