Deborah Orr, the award-winning columnist, has died after a long battle with breast cancer at the age of 57. Her family confirmed her death and asked for privacy.
Born in 1962 in Motherwell, UK, Orr is survived by her sons, Ivan and Luther, and her stepchildren, Alexis and Madeleine. She was separated from her husband and the novelist Will Self in 1997.
In 1990, Orr joined the Guardian and became the first female editor of Weekend magazine. She used to write for the Independent between 1999 and 2009. She returned to the Guardian and worked as a columnist for almost 10 years, and then joined the “i” newspaper last year. In the same year, she started writing her a memoir that is expected to be published in 2020.
Catherine Bennett, Orr’s friend and the Observer columnist, described Orr “one of the cleverest, most unconventional, most fearless people on the planet.”
In 2010, Orr was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was in remission but she learned that it has returned in August and shared her experience with friends with defiant detail and pitch-black humor.
Novelist Andrew O’Hagan, Orr’s friend, told the Guardian, “She was completely inspiring and never knowingly not difficult, but beyond the ferocity, she had a huge heart.”
“She said what she thought, and it could be quite bracing, but it was always something she actually did think. She was outspoken, but the things she was speaking about were very original,” added O’Hagan.
Recalling Orr’s formidable reputation, Penny Martin, Editor of The Gentlewoman magazine, said, “I’d heard about Deborah long before I met her – there are some wild stories about her fierce invective and withering put-downs. But she was enormously encouraging to this younger, less experienced Scottish editor.”
“She’s surely one of the funniest, clever journalists I’ve met; a total force and a great dancer, as I remember,” added Martin. Katharine Viner, Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian, said, “Orr was a brilliant, clever, funny writer and editor whose uncompromising and insightful approach to her work brought powerful journalism to the Guardian over many years.”
