Ian Jack Cause of Death

Ian Jack, a Guardian columnist and former Granta and Independent on Sunday editor, passed away on 28 October 2022, at the age of 77 after a brief illness.

Jack became ill on the Isle of Bute, where he spent a portion of each year, and died on Friday morning in Paisley.

Jack was a gifted writer, a brilliant and imaginative editor and a mentor to younger journalists. His final piece for the Guardian, published last weekend, was marking the centenary of the BBC, “one of the world’s great cultural projects”.

He wrote: “It looks unlikely that Britain will ever again invent anything so admired and influential; we have been lucky to have it.”

Katharine Viner, the editor of the Guardian, said: “Ian Jack was one of the finest journalists of his generation. He was an incredible reporter, full of curiosity and observational skill, and he was also a wonderful writer. Our readers loved him; there was no one like him.”

The Indian historian Ramachandra Guha said Jack combined professional distinction with “a rare personal decency – he was one of the nicest human beings I have known”.

Jack was named Journalist of the Year (Granada TV’s What the Papers Say award, 1985), Reporter of the Year (British Press Awards, 1988), and Editor of the Year (Newspaper Industry Awards, 1993). He was a member of the Royal Society of Literature.