Jonathan Fryer obituary

His writing career spanned four decades, with 15 books published during this time including biographies on Oscar Wilde and Christopher Isherwood, several publications and countless articles for publications including The Guardian, The Independent and The Spectator.

Jonathan was very politically active, standing for the Liberal Democrats’ list for the London region for every election between 1999 and 2019. Most recently, Jonathan was the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson for London and was the UK Liberal Democrat’s representative on the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

As well as dedicating his time to these causes, Jonathan also spent his career as a lecturer at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and a broadcaster with the BBC, regularly appearing on the Today Programme’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and frequently contributing to From Our Own Correspondent in recent years.

Owen Atkinson, Chief Executive of ALCS, had this to say about Jonathan:

During his time at ALCS, Jonathan contributed both as a valued Board member and as a skilled political advisor, helping and guiding ALCS in our lobbying within the corridors of Parliament.  He was a passionate supporter of ALCS and its work and always had the interests of writers close to his heart. He will be greatly missed by us all.

Tony Bradman, ALCS Chair, had this to say about Jonathan:

I think I can speak for everyone on the ALCS Board when I say that we were all very sad to hear that our colleague Jonathan Fryer has died. Jonathan was an excellent director, always easy to work with and keen to make sure he did his best for our members. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. He will be much missed by all those who came into contact with him.

Jonathan was a valued member of ALCS and he will be dearly missed. Our thoughts go out to Jonathan’s family and friends during this time.