Nicholas Tomalin

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Nicholas Osborne Tomalin (30 October 1931 - 17 October 1973) was a British journalist and writer.

Tomalin was the son of Miles Tomalin, a communist poet and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. He studied English Literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a student he was President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the prestigious undergraduate Granta magazine. He graduated in 1954 and began work as a foreign correspondent for various London based newspapers. He married fellow Cambridge graduate Claire Tomalin to whom he remained married until his death, in spite of his numerous adulterous affairs^[1].

He later co-wrote a book (with Ron Hall) about amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst's failed attempt to circumnavigate the world and subsequent suicide. His article The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong was included in Tom Wolfe's collection The New Journalism, which was a collection of non-fiction pieces emblematic of a new movement within the field aimed at revolutionising reportage.

Tomalin's articles often began with bombastic statements on their subject matter. The most famous of these is; "The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability"^[2].

Tomalin was killed aged forty-one in October 1973 in the Golan Heights while covering the clash between the Israeli and Syrian armed forces during the Yom Kippur War.

In November 2005 the website Press Gazette named its top fifty 'journalists of the modern era'. It placed Nicholas Tomalin thirty-fifth.