Jeremy Seabrook

Jeremy Seabrook was an author and social and political commentator. Born 14 November 1939; died 30 November 2024. Jeremy – always Jerry from his early years – was born in Northampton to Gladys (nee Yule), the 12th child of shoe workers who had recently migrated from the countryside, and Sidney Seabrook, a butcher who – it would only emerge some 30 years later – was not his father. He read French and Italian at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1957-60). He worked in a library and teaching, before writing articles for the New Society magazine, and a book called The Unprivileged. Ivan Ruff's obituary of Seabrook in The Guardian states 'One day a call came from Buckingham Palace – the then Prince of Wales had read some of Jeremy’s work and wished to discuss the unrest then blighting Britain’s cities. After the private interview at the palace (many of the ideas discussed appeared later in a royal speech) it turned out that the footman who had taken Jeremy’s coat had gone off duty, and the prince himself had the task (no easy one) of hunting down the missing M&S garment. Four digestive biscuits that Jeremy had smuggled out were taken to Gladys and his Aunt Em in Northampton, where they were declared “the best digestives we’ve ever tasted”. Jeremy would later ruefully concede that this was probably the high point of his career' . He bore his last cancer-ridden months with dignity and courage, looked after to the end by his partner, Derek Hooper, who had shared his life for the last half-century. His final published book, Private Worlds (2024), an account of growing up gay in the 50s, was widely praised and shortlisted for the JR Ackerley prize for autobiography and memoir.