Diamond, John

▪ 2002

      British journalist (b. May 10, 1953, London, Eng.—d. March 2, 2001, London), chronicled his four years with cancer with unflinching honesty, humour, and unsentimental insight through his weekly column in The Sunday Times magazine and the best-selling book C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too (1998). Diamond was already a successful consumer writer, newspaper columnist, television presenter, and frequent talk-show guest when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in March 1997. He lost his tongue to the disease in 1998, along with his ability to speak or eat—an irony he never failed to point out as his wife, columnist and food writer Nigella Lawson, became the star of a successful TV cooking show. Diamond continued to write about the daily minutiae of life with cancer until his death.

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