It asserts that I have died recently only a week gone, in reality and I'd be interested in knowing what it thinks occurred to me on ten December, the supposed day of my death. As far as I recall, I did nothing at all that day except sit by the fire and write a column for G2, later rewarding myself with a big drink and an early bed.
I have pinched myself again today, so I'm able to state, as Mark Twain once did, the report of my death is an exaggeration. It appeared to be a reader who drew the Guardian's attention to my latterly updated Wikipedia entry, which starts "Alexander Chancellor (Jan four, 1940 December ten, 2009) was a Brit journalist". Noting the Guardian had not thought it worth commenting on my passing and that it had also printed a column by me on the day following my death, the reader puzzled whether somebody had been "erroneously or maliciously revising the Wikipedia entry". Good query. I'm wondering, too. The more interesting reason, for it might be fun to guess who was responsible and why. But mistake is the likelier one. The examples of early obituaries or death notices in the media are legion, but are almost always the results of some muddle over a name or misunderstood report.
Infrequently they can have a salutary effect, as when Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, reading in his very own obituary that he used to be a merchant of death, made a decision to make amends by setting up the Nobel prizes.
But I have deserved no obituary so will just go on being a hack for a bit, though maybe being a touch more wary about putting my religion in Wikipedia from this time on. Anybody can edit it, and even as I've been writing this, somebody has kindly brought me back to life.
