From the BBC website
The presenter of BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme, Nick Clarke, has died of cancer, aged 58.
Clarke was diagnosed with cancer last year, and had to have his leg amputated during treatment.
He kept a frank and moving audio diary about his operation and chemotherapy, which was broadcast on Radio 4 in June.
Prime Minister Tony Blair led tributes, calling Clarke a "true professional" who "represented the best elements of public service broadcasting".
BBC News head Helen Boaden said: "Nick was a superb journalist. It's hard to imagine Radio 4 or BBC journalism without him."
"He had a brilliantly forensic mind, a wry wit and a deep instinct for the power of language," she added.
As well as presenting The World at One, Clarke also chaired the Round Britain Quiz and the debate series Straw Poll.
He was born in Godalming, Surrey in 1948, and educated at Bradfield College, Berkshire and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge where he studied modern languages.
After a career in newspapers, he joined the BBC in 1973 as an industrial correspondent before moving on to the Money Programme and eventually joining Newsnight in 1984.
He began presenting The World At One in 1989, and was voted Radio Broadcaster of the Year by the Voice of the Listener and Viewer in 1999.
Clarke also published two books, a best-selling biography of the veteran writer and journalist Alistair Cooke, and a critique of modern Britain, Shadow of a Nation.
I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in Music and Radio. If anyone has a preference feel free to push for a move.
I not sure if it's because I've watched two people die of cancer in recent years, but this has made me really sad. Nick Clark wasn't just a Radio 4 institution and a reassuring force of continuity, he was - at least to my mind - one of if not the best broadcast journalist working in Britain today. He had none of Paxman or Humphrey's swagger, wasn't at all concerned with his own celebrity, and didn't feel the need to harangue his interviewees to get the answers he wanted or to make a point. Rather, he was consistently polite and softly spoken ,and managed to destroy soundbites, empty words, obfuscation, in fact the full range of political nonsense with his exacting use of language and his formidable intelligence. He had a fantastic way of homing in on the heart of an issue or an argument that put other journalists to shame. The presenters of Radio Four's flagship news show the Today Programme suffered particularly by comparison.
I think this is really shit, basically.
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