“There is some relationship between the hunger for truth and the search for the right words. This struggle may be ultimately indefinable and even undecidable, but one damn well knows it when one sees it.”

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.