JOHN Ezard, a former Oxford Mail reporter and one of the Guardian’s most respected writers, has died at the age of 71.

Mr Ezard was born on November 25, 1939 in Exeter and educated at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

After a brief spell on the West Essex Gazette, he joined the Oxford Mail in 1963, writing stories about life at the university.

Joining the Guardian aged 27, he was to spend the rest of his working life there, specialising in literary and arts matters, but also wrote on state occasions and from the Falkland Islands.

Peter Preston, the paper’s former editor, told the Guardian: “He was a master of all trades and the kind of journalist who gives journalism a good name: skilled, talented and always true to himself.”

Mr Ezard died from complications with a lung condition. He is survived by Susan, whom he married while working on the Oxford Mail, their daughter, Claire, and his brother, Michael.