by Rupert Besley
Think cartoons and music and, for anyone
of a certain age, the name of Gerard
Hoffnung is that which first springs to mind
and the one that towers over all the rest.
Hoffnung died tragically young, suddenly
at 34 in 1959. But, within the space of
just a few years, as broadcaster, humorist,
cartoonist and organiser of barmy concerts,
Hoffnung brought to chill, grey, postwar
Britain warmth and fun still fondly recalled
and much enjoyed today. The word genius
comes up too often, but in the case of
Hoffnung it is a term that could be applied
several times over.
Most frequently these days Hoffnung is
referenced through the recording of his
address to the Oxford Union, with tale
of the hapless bricklayer. To modern ears,
the sound of Gerard Hoffnung booming
blimpishly forth (he appears to have been
born middle-aged) might lead one to imagine
that here was a character straight from PG
Wodehouse, plummy, well-heeled and cosily
in with the Establishment. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
Gerhard Hoffnung was born in Berlin to
Jewish parents. The family fled Nazism in
1938 with mother and son ending up in
London, while the father went to Israel.
An outsider with a strong sense of human
rights, Hoffnung was busy all his life in
quiet but active espousal of liberal causes.
He became a Quaker, opposed nuclear
armament and the death penalty, supported
victims of racism and homophobia, opposed
hunting and was concerned for animal
welfare, did prison visiting... all mainstream
thinking now, each of these at the time
would have occasioned much raising
of eyebrows. No Establishment stooge,
Hoffnung was, according to his biographer
Richard Ingrams, remembered at school
for his anarchic spirit. He went on to be
expelled from Hornsey Art College for lack
of gravity in Life Class.
The sheer decency of the man and hugely
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