George Vine: Elegant writer, man of courtesy and humour

George Vine was a writer of great elegance and a man of innate courtesy. He had a fund of knowledge about international issues and was the most amusing raconteur I’ve ever known. He helped me enormously after I arrived in Bonn for my first foreign assignment. His advice was always sound, imparted with humour and wisdom. He looked at the world with amused detachment and wrote about it in polished phrases. ■