2:20pm Monday 30th November 2009
AN acclaimed author who started his career at The Bolton Evening News has died.
Geoffrey Moorhouse, who penned 29 books in a prolific career, died of a stroke on Thursday, aged 77.
He was once described by a Times literary critic as “one of the best writers of our time”.
Mr Moorhouse was born at his family home in St Helens Road, Bolton, on November 29, 1931. He grew up in Ainsworth and attended Bury Grammar School.
He joined the Bolton Evening News in his early 20s, and later said of his time at the newspaper: “The BEN was important to me and gave me a push in the right direction.”
In 1954, he went to New Zealand and the Bolton Evening News published a series of his observations.
He joined the Manchester Guardian when he was 27 and went on to become its chief feature writer. He split his time between journalism and book writing until 1970 when he became a full time author.
Much of his work was based on his travels. Perhaps most memorable is The Fearful Void which was based on his trek across the Sahara Desert. He had wanted to become the first European to cross the 3,600 miles of desert, from the Atlantic to the Nile, by camel.
The trip was tough. Three camels died, Mr Moorhouse suffered dysentery, and he and his guides could only get water by following nomads.
He was eventually forced to give up the struggle about half way across the desert through illness and exhaustion but said the trip had helped him understand himself better.
Other books included Calcutta, New York and Sydney, which he referred to as his metropolitan trilogy.
Hell’s Foundations, which was published in 1992, explored the effect of the First World War’s Gallipoli campaign on Bury. Many of the men in the 5th battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers who fought in the campaign never returned home. His final book, The Last Office, was published in 2008.
A Northern man at heart, he made Wensleydale, in North Yorkshire, his home for the last 27 years of his life.
He is survived by his partner, Susan Bassnett, and three children — Andrew, Michael and Jane. A second daughter, Brigie, died in 1981.
His son, Andrew, said: “Bolton was his roots. He was a Wanderers supporter and always spoke very fondly of the town.”
Mr Moorhouse’s funeral will be at St Margaret’s Church in Hawes, North Yorkshire, on Wednesday at 2.45pm. There will be a memorial service at a place and date to be arranged lucy.ewing@ theboltonnews.co.uk
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/trade_directory/