Oliver Postgate, who died on Monday 8 December, should be remembered as one of the great children’s storytellers of the 20th century.
Generations were transported by his imagination – and thanks to creations like Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine – were inspired to use their own.
He wrote for newstatesman.com between November 2006 and February of this year. In the closing months of his life his primary preoccupation seemed to be with man’s wilful destruction of the planet.
His musings on the subject were suitably whimsical. This year in his God Dialogues he wrote on the inherent worthlessness of money, the deeply damaging effects of religion (“The separation between law and religious injunction has got to be absolute and stay that way, otherwise fear will come back into the land”) and nuclear weapons.
Oliver died in Kent aged 83. I last heard from him on 1 July. I’d asked him to write for us again.
He wrote: “Dear Ben, Been(am) very ill. The world will have to manage without me for a bit.
all the best Oliver”.
You can read all Oliver’s contributions to newstatesman.com by clicking here
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