David Gardner, former international affairs editor, Middle East editor and chief leader writer of the Financial Times, who has died suddenly in Dubai at the age of 69, was one of the outstanding international correspondents and commentators of his generation. He also wrote like an angel.
He combined a conviction of the importance of understanding history with a fascination for political intrigue, an impatience with humbug, a love of telling stories, a passion for good causes, a detestation of dictators and an irrepressible sense of humour. His lucid prose made the most complex subjects, from Middle East politics to the European Common Agricultural Policy, easily intelligible to the uninitiated. In the words of Roula Khalaf, FT editor, he managed to combine the best writing on the paper with “passion and integrity”.
Born in Brussels, where his father was a British diplomat (although Gardner always carried an Irish passport, thanks to his grandfather), he was sent to Stonyhurst, the British Catholic boarding school, where he was taught by Jesuit priests. The teaching marked him for life. “The Jesuits taught us a sense of human solidarity, and an openness to the world,” according to Jimmy Burns, a school contemporary and fellow FT correspondent. They also instilled an intellectual rigour and analytical capacity Gardner never lost.