David Nicholson

Dave was one of those people who had what Denis Healey called “a hinterland” - a broad knowledge of things other than the immediately professional.

Just one of many instances: I knew that Dave had a deep appreciation of jazz. But I didn’t know that he played. I was astonished, in the small hours of one morning when he and I were the last members left in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong, to hear him sit down at the piano and make the most beautiful music. ■