George Steiner, 1929-2020, a true European
Against the advice of some of my better read friends, I will still from time to time reach for that Evening Standard on the bus or London Underground. It exposes me to stories I would never usually click on when they drift through my social media feeds, to the juicy politically-charged gossip of the 'The Londoner' pages and, above all, can be a nice free ride with original high-quality thinkers who I'd usually have to pay for in The Economist or Standpoint (yes I mean Anne McElvoy). This week though it was Matthew D'Ancona whose Comment piece piqued my interest. This is unusual because D'Ancona, being among those Remainers with whom I parted company after the referendum, could for the last year at least be found using his Lebedev inches to preach Remoaner miserabilism with a consistency comparable to certain Anglican vicars I could name. But it is time for us all to move on and in any case the subject matter was intriguing enough to draw me in: a eulogy-cum...