By Martin Sieff
Nearly 40 years now since I discovered the hilarious, joyous, subversive, vicious and wise books of Stefan Heym: If you hate Nazis, Communism, Anti-Semites, Bigots, Censorship and Big Bullies of every persuasion hunt down and devour the works of Heym: You have found your champion. You have found your lifelong friend. When writer Stefan Heym – like George Orwell he started Life under another name but do not be deceived, Heym is who he was – died suddenly on a visit to Israel in December 2001 at the age of almost 89, the world outside Germany, the home he hated, paid almost no notice. Now, more than 19 years on from his passing Heym has not been forgotten in America and Israel only because he was never remembered there in the first place.