“The enduring rapture with magic and fable has always struck me as latently childish and somehow sexless (and thus also related to childlessness).”

British journalist and polemicist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, he was renowned for his sharp, provocative essays on politics, literature, and culture. His work blended rigorous analysis with a combative wit, often challenging ideological dogma and defending free speech and secularism.