Peter Skipp obituary

My friend Peter Skipp, who has died aged 66 of a brain haemorrhage, was a translator and interpreter of English, Bulgarian and Russian who worked with nuclear engineers, authors, historians, journalists and politicians.

His conference, delegation, parliamentary and governmental interpreting included work for the EU, Nato, and several Bulgarian presidents; for Bulgarian television, it was mainly of current affairs and major events, including the US president Joe Biden’s inauguration and several international football matches.

His translations into English included poetry by the celebrated Bulgarian poets Dimcho Debelyanov, Elisaveta Bagryana and Lyubomir Levchev; and works on aviation, a lifelong passion. He wrote creatively too, but was especially pleased with his last major translation into Bulgarian, of Michael Frayn’s 1999 novel Headlong.

Peter was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Lev Maydachevksky, a Kyiv native, and Maria (nee Tzaneva), both singers. His parents had divorced when, in 1971, Maria, also an interpreter, married the British geophysicist Bryan Skipp, and she and Peter, then aged 15, emigrated to Britain. Bryan’s son, Gerrard, my closest childhood friend, had died aged 14 in 1970: Peter and I became friends as soon as he arrived at Forest Hill school in south-east London.

Surrounded by Bryan’s intellectual Communist party friends in Brixton, Peter immersed himself in English language and culture. After he graduated from the University of Hull in 1978 with a degree in Russian studies, visiting Bulgaria was impossible as he risked detention for military service. In London, Peter worked in magazine publishing and advertising sales, was a print union shop steward and met Jill, his first wife. In 1994 he was shot at while driving a Convoy of Mercy relief lorry to Bosnia.

Following their divorce and the fall of the dictatorship, in 1995 Peter returned to Sofia to pursue his metier as an interpreter, translator, editor and media fixer (including for the Guardian, BBC, and Channel 4 News). While interpreting for Bulgarian nuclear engineers visiting the US in 1996, he met and married Galina (Galya) Tsvetkova. They returned to London for their son Radi-Gerrard’s primary education, then to Sofia for secondary school.

Peter could be both funny and explosively angry – especially at Putin’s war in Ukraine, where he maintained family ties. He loved travelling: in January, Radi-Gerrard, now an airline pilot, flew them to Sicily. Peter commuted between Sofia, London and Bolton, but was happiest at their country cottage near Tryavna in central Bulgaria, enjoying long woodland walks, ever watchful for bears.

He is survived by Galya and Radi-Gerrard, his stepbrother, Stefan, and Galya’s son, Miro.