Manfred Pagel - a quiet human touch

When I returned to London after being expelled from Moscow in October 1985, I expected to do a patient or even penitent round of the desks.

Yet within just a few months, Manfred called me at home and said, “I would like to offer you a post in a small European bureau. “It was indeed small but ideal, the one-person office in The Hague.It was a fabulous introduction to flying solo.

I moved after barely a year to East Berlin, but I was hugely grateful to Manfred for having put his trust in me. He had an understated style, quiet human touch and impressive memory. He recalled in a message to me a couple of years ago how, decades before, he had read with interest my German-language university dissertation on (then West) German newspapers. ■