"Brave writer who put illness in its place"

Taken from "The Daily Record" 14 July 2001

JOHN Diamond, journalist, columnist and broadcaster, chronicled his life
with cancer from diagnosis in 1997 until his death in March of this year.
At the age of 47, the husband of TV cook Nigella Lawson had lost the ability
to speak after having surgery on his tongue, but continued to communicate
vigorously through his writing.

A Lump In My Throat, written by journalist Victoria Coren, dramatises John's
weekly newspaper column.

John is played by Neil Pearson and the drama follows the course of his
cancer, treatment and daily life with the terminal illness.

But it is not all bleak. John's take on life was witty and irreverent, even
in his darkest moments. And so we see the young John having his first
cigarette as a teenager in Hackney, riding the motorbike he bought when he
found out the cancer was incurable and berating New Age medicine.
The Grim Reaper even makes a dramatic appearance, played by Arthur Smith.
In real life, Pearson was one of Diamond's soulmates and latterly his
casino-going companion. Pearson admired Diamond's writing and Diamond
admired Pearson in TV comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, every hack's favourite
sitcom.

Pearson says he only ever saw the sunny side of Diamond: "The sense of
indignation and anger only occasionally surfaces in the columns.

"John's book is now required reading for trainee doctors, to remind them
that patients are undergoing the worst time of their life.
"So he helped to rehumanise the doctor-patient relationship.