Saturday, January 17, 2009

Sir John Mortimer RIP

Sad to hear of the death of Sir John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, who was a passionate lover of liberty and enemy of the nanny state. Courtesy of Mr Eugenides, here is a splendid tirade from him against the antismoking tendency, published in 2005.

What with him gone, and Simon Gray recently, and Auberon Waugh a few years ago, where are the curmudgeons who will speak out against political correctness and the ban-everything brigade?