Tom Tickell obituary

"From 1970 until 1982 he was the personal finance editor at the Guardian, offering excellent advice for readers, though he may not always have followed it himself. He went on to work for the Mail on Sunday (1982-84) and the Sunday Telegraph (1991-94), and then as a freelancer until 2004, with personal finance the main theme."

"Tom was born in Oxford during the second world war; he remarked that he was grateful to share a birthday with Queen Elizabeth II, rather than Adolf Hitler, born one day earlier. His father was Jerrard Tickell, the Irish novelist, and his mother, Renee (nee Haynes), was also a noted author and a researcher on paranormal phenomena. Tom had two much older brothers, Crispin and Patrick."

"As a child he survived a near-miss with meningitis, saved only when the new miracle drug of penicillin became available. By the time Tom reached his teenage years, he was already a gifted raconteur, mimic and avid collector of jokes and anecdotes; that was also when he began to collect nephews and nieces, the first arriving in 1957, with nine more to follow in fairly short order. We became his first devoted fanclub he was always generous, entertaining and attentive with each one of us."

Tom Tickell built a long career in personal finance journalism, serving as personal finance editor at the Guardian (1970–82), writing for the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph, and freelancing until 2004. He published quizzes, quotes and curiosities and offered practical financial advice to readers. He served as a Mental Health Act Commissioner (1985–91), sat on the Mental Health Review Tribunal, volunteered as a prison visitor at Pentonville, and later joined its independent monitoring board. He was an active public speaker at Speakers’ Corner, a gifted raconteur and mimic, son of writers Jerrard Tickell and Renee Haynes, and educated at Westminster and Pembroke College, Oxford.

Read at www.theguardian.com