John Berger, Death’s Secretary: A Conversation with Tom Overton

John Berger, the renowned British writer and artist, was born a century ago and passed away in 2017. Berger is best known for his 1972 book and BBC series, Ways of Seeing, as well as his acceptance speech at the Booker McConnell Prize ceremony, where he announced that half of his award money would be donated to the British Black Panthers.

This speech, along with his influential writing, led to his papers being donated to the British Library, where Tom Overton, a writer also working with Berger's archive, found a job. Overton, in his new biography, John Berger: From Life, spent fifteen years piecing together Berger's life and work, as the writer himself referred to himself as a storyteller and his task as bearing witness to the process of death, connecting the living to the past.

Overton discusses his biography with the reporter, describing his initial fascination with Berger's work and how he reached out to him over time.