Writer and journalist Fernando Sobral dies
For almost 40 years, his name has been associated with newspapers such as Semanário, O Independente, Diário Económico, Se7e and Jornal de Negócios, where he was a great reporter and author of the column “O Pulo do Gato”, on political news, and the Thematic page “East”, about Asia and the Middle East.
Journalist and writer Fernando Sobral, author of “A Grande Dama do Chá”, died on Friday, a victim of a prolonged illness, reported on Friday night Jornal Económico, of which he was a contributor.
Born in Barreiro in 1960, Fernando Sobral began his career in the 1980s, he was still a student at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. News Diary.
For almost 40 years, his name has been associated with newspapers such as Semanário, O Independente, Diário Económico, Se7e and Jornal de Negócios, where he was a great reporter and author of the column “O Pulo do Gato”, on political news, and the Thematic page “East”, about Asia and the Middle East.
In Jornal Económico, since last year, he had signed the column “Sociedade Recreativa”, which he added to another, earlier, on watches, in the Et Cetera section, where he published the last text this week.
In 2020-21, also an opinion column in Público newspaper.
During his career, he was also a contributor to magazines such as Ler, Máxima and Sábado, and also to the newspaper Correio da Manhã, where he concluded his opinion on sport.
The literary work of Fernando Sobral has more than a dozen titles, between fiction and non-fiction books, having in the novel “A Grande Dama do Chá”, a story centered on Macau, on the eve of World War II, combining espionage, music and passion, his last work of fiction, published by Skyscraper, in 2020.
“As Joias de Goa”, “She Singed Fados”, “On the Dance Floor”, “The Opium Ship”, “Paper Tower”, “The Silence of Heaven”, “L.Ville”, “The Secret of Hidroavião”, “Os Anos Sócrates – the great game of Portuguese politics” and “Football – the global stadium” are other titles in their own name, written since the end of the 1990s.
In co-authorship, he also wrote “Alfredo da Silva, CUF and Barreiro”, with Agostinho Leite and Elisabete de Sá, “Os Mais Poderosos da Economia Portuguesa” and “A Teia do Poder”, with Pedro Santos Guerreiro, and “Barings, the story of the British bank that saved Portugal”, with Paula Alexandra Cordeiro.
In 1986, Fernando Sobral was one of the founding names of Rádio Universidade Tejo, Academia de Lisboa, later working at the former Correio da Manhã Rádio, always privileging the approach to themes of art and culture and, in particular, the dissemination of new trends. musicals.
He was also one of the founders of the former Rádio Sul e Sueste, a local station in Barreiro, his homeland.
On television, he was a regular contributor to programs dedicated to music and literature, such as “Escrita em Dia”, on SIC, and “Ler para Crer”, on RTP.
“Our biggest deficit is that of ideas”, he stated2 in one of the columns he wrote, in Público, June 201, referring to Portugal, and then added: “In our political elite, nobody believes that knowledge and knowledge continue to be important for society in general and for understanding global politics”.
A week ago, in O Jornal Económico, Fernando Sobral wrote: “The horizon gives the answers: the crisis will arrive and with great force. There is an Northwind waiting for us”.