David and Jenny Bewes have paid tribute to their son Diccon Bewes, who passed away last month in Switzerland, aged 57.

Diccon was born on July 27, 1967 and christened at St Mary’s in Sheet.

He attended Churcher’s College in Petersfield from 1978 to 1985, excelling academically, both at school and later at the London School of Economics where he was awarded a rare ‘starred first’ in International Relations.

A post-university 18-month backpacking world trip whet his appetite for a career in travel-writing. On the homeward stretch, he travelled from the Far East, through China and across Mongolia, and through the USSR as it was disintegrating. As a writer, he took the scenic route via bookselling.

After leaving Waterstones in 1994, he spent ten years as a travel writer for Lonely Planet and then Holiday Which? Magazine. As a side-line, he was responsible for the sections on Canada, Australia and New Zealand in Pears Cyclopaedia. Together with Chris Cook, he wrote an encyclopaedia of places and events in 20th Century World History, What Happened Where’, published by UCL in 1997.

For health reasons, he moved to Switzerland in 2005, and was manager of the Stauffacher English Bookshop in Berne, for six years. He loved Switzerland, particularly the mountains, in which he hiked extensively. His love of world-wide travel, writing and his experience in moving to Switzerland and getting to know and understand the Swiss, led directly to his book ‘wiss Watching: Inside the Land of Milk and Money which not only won recognition as a Financial Times Book of the Year (and remains a bestseller today) but quickly became recommended reading for anyone considering travelling or moving to Switzerland.

He published six further non-fiction books over the ensuing years, and his final non-fiction book: ‘he Best Swiss Train Rides, will be launched in Berne on April 24, followed by two novels later this year.

Over the last 10 years Diccon became well-known in Switzerland as a public speaker, resident expert on the UK (particularly Brexit), appearing on the radio, screen and in the print media many times. He also worked closely with the British Embassy in Berne.

Fluent in Italian, French and German, Diccon became a Swiss national, but always retained a close link with Petersfield, where his parents still live, and with his very wide circle of UK based friends and family. He fought cancer for the last three years, and in the final three weeks of his life, Diccon organised and attended a ‘goodbye’ party in Portsmouth for ninety friends, from all over the world. Two weeks later he left his hospital bed in Berne, and held a similar event for seventy-five local friends and colleagues in Berne.

His body finally gave up the battle just two days later, and he died in Berne having achieved his remarkable goal of giving everyone he loved the opportunity to say a personal goodbye and to share many happy memories.

Diccon was a devoted son, brother, husband, uncle and friend and will be sorely missed by all whose lives he touched.