The British author and journalist Michael Wolfers, co-author with Jane Bergerol of ‘Angola in the Frontline' (Zed Books, 1983) died in London at the start of a private dinner in one of London's most exclusive clubs to celebrate the milestone 75th birthday of his close friend of 56-years standing, Lord (Melvyn) Bragg on October 15.
Wolfers was one of 16 guests savouring the first course at the men-only Garrick Club when an evening of celebration turned into one of horror.
The Togo-based Wolfers, collapsed. Despite attempts by paramedics for more than an hour-and-a-half to revive him, he was declared dead before he arrived at St Thomas' Hospital on South Bank, close to his home in Waterloo.
"We'd been close friends for 56 years," Lord Bragg told a reporter from the Daily Mail. "He made close friendships. He was much loved. He was very highly regarded."
Michael Wolfers was the product of exclusive and expensive primary and secondary education and was an outstanding scholar at Wadham College, Oxford University in the late 1950s.
It was there he met young Bragg who came from an English working class background but who went on to become one of Britain's best known media figures.