I had no idea that Nick had died, on August 29 of cancer apparently.
http://www.esswe.org/#p/obituary-nicholas-goodrick-clarke.html
The only personal contact I had with him was years ago, when dinosaurs roamed, when he was my long-suffering German Literature tutor. I felt then that he was destined for great things, though apparently he had a struggle to get a foothold in Academe.
He seems to have been a Theosophist, which may have been a problem for some people, and he may have had more than an academic interest in the far-right political views he often wrote about (see http://www.counter-currents.com/2012/09/nicholas-goodrick-clarke-r-i-p/ for a very frank evaluation of this aspect).
I felt he was at his best when he stuck to the true scholarship I always knew he was capable of and at his terrible worst when writing about the occultist far-right (e.g. Black Sun). An excellent Germanist and translator, he could have made a greater contribution than he did to the study of figures such as Paracelsus; however, since his Chair was partly funded, I understand, by the Blavatsky Trust, he may have felt obliged to investigate and explain the alleged links between the writings of HPB and the rise of the Nazi movement.
For my part, I shall remember him as the best kind of Englishman: charming, erudite, with a questing spirit, setting high standards but with a delightful whimsical streak.
My sympathies to his widow and the rest of his family.
Anima eius et animæ omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace.Attached Image (viewed 592 times):
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