Obituary: Giles Watson

Giles Watson lived in my city and he was the translator of the books of a journalist, Beppe Severgnini, that/whom I always read (he's probably the Italian journalist most read abroad; he also wrote for The Economist). So I have done this translation of the obituary in/of/from our local newspaper.

A sudden illness and he fell on the ground to never stand up again.
Giles George Watson, 61, a Scottish Scot (<em>or:</em> Scotsman) living in Udine, died yesterday from a heart attack in Lignano, where he was spending a holiday with his wife.

Born in Scotland in 1954, Watson graduated from Cambridge in 1976, with a degree in/having read/having studied* Modern and Medieval Languages. For a few years he worked for a cloth company in South America, then he came (went?) back to the UK and began/started to teach English in a school in Liverpool.

Here he met a teacher from Udine that/whom he married three years later. After the marriage he moved to Udine where he worked for the local university; he also directed the Oxford school and then he decided to be a freelance translator.

"He had translated all the books of Severgnini, who was also a friend, and every day he translated an article for Corriere.it," his wife said. He loved his work and he was a specialist for translations concerning wine {my region produces good wine}." He was accurate and careful, and in our house there are dictionaries of all the language of the world", his wife added.

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When referring to a person, we can use "that" in spoken speech, however in writing we would most often use "who" and "whom."

Lots of changes to prepositions, mostly to make them more idiomatic. These are hard to master and it just takes time--and more exposure to the language, such as reading and reading and reading English.

'With a degree in' is what I would use, as an American; a Brit might say 'having read', but I am not sure, as this is a British English usage. Speaking of 'Brit,' this means a person from Britain, and a Scot is a person from Scotland. 'Scottish' is an adjective, as in Scottish food. 

Obituary: Giles Watson

Giles Watson lived in my city and translated the books of the journalist, Beppe Severgnini, whom I had always read.  He is probably the Italian journalist most read abroad; he also wrote for "The Economist". This translation of the obituary is done for our local newspaper.

A sudden illness occurred and he fell to the ground, never to stand up again.
Giles George Watson, 61, a Scott living in Udine, died yesterday of a heart attack in Lignano, where he was spending a holiday with his wife.


Born in Scotland in 1954, Watson graduated from Cambridge in 1976 in Modern and Medieval Languages. For a few years he worked for a textile company in South America, then he came back to the UK and taught English in a school in Liverpool.

There he met a teacher from Udine and they married three years later. After the marriage, they moved to Udine where he worked for the local university, directing the Oxford school. Later he decided to be a freelance translator.

"He translated all the books of Severgnini, who was also a friend of his, and every day he translated an article for Corriere." his wife says. He loved his work and specialized in translations concerning wine {my region produces good wine}. "He was accurate and careful; in our house there are dictionaries of all the language in the world", the wife added.