 A regular contributor to "The Tablet", a compassionate intelligence shone through his articles, providing a source of relief in conservative times and of compassionate impartiality in times of conflict.Perhaps his skill in listening respectfully to wildly variant points of view, acknowledging authentic distinctives unobscured by mollifying generalisations, was most widely known in his work at Tantur, but it was certainly experienced by his students as well.Nicholl died of cancer, at his home in Betley, on 3 May 1997.