Alan Riding

Alan Riding (8 December 1943 – 6 June 2026) was a British author and journalist. He was a long-time foreign correspondent for The New York Times, ultimately as the paper's European cultural correspondent based in Paris. He is the author of And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris.

Early life Alan Riding was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 8 December 1943. In 1978, he joined The New York Times as Mexico City bureau chief. Before leaving Mexico for Brazil in 1984, he wrote Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans, on modern Mexico.

As the Rio de Janeiro bureau chief, Riding covered the transitions from military regimes to democracies in Brazil and many neighboring countries as well as guerrilla wars and drug trafficking in Peru and Colombia.

In 1989, after a brief stint in Rome, he was named The New York Timess Paris bureau chief, which included coverage of the European Union and NATO. In 1995, he became the paper's European Cultural Correspondent, a post that involved covering all the arts in the region. During this period, he also co-authored (with Leslie Dunton-Downer) Essential Shakespeare Handbook and Opera. In 2007, Riding left journalism to write And The Show Went On, published by Knopf in 2010. It has also been published in Britain and has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, Polish, Chinese and Portuguese. Thereafter he devoted himself to writing for the theater.

Personal life and death Riding lived in Paris with his wife Marlise Simons, who is a reporter for The New York Times. Riding died of cancer in Paris on 6 June 2026, aged 82. 1992 Latin American Studies Association, Special Citation 2003 Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico 2011 Palau i Fabre International Essay Prize, Spain 2022 Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Bristol, UK

Books Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans. Knopf, New York, 1985; Vintage 1986. Essential Shakespeare Handbook. DK, New York and London, 2004. Eyewitness Companions: Opera. DK, New York and London, 2006. And The Show Went On; Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris . Knopf, 2010; Vintage 2011. Libertadores, Samsa Editions, Brussels, 2016. Shakespeare: His Life and Works, DK, New York and London, 2021 (ISBN 978-0744035001) Opera: The Definitive Illustrated Story, DK, New and London, 2022 (ISBN 978-0744056310)