Pan across the cultural history of Britain in the middle to late 20th century, zoom in on nodes of special interest and- by gum- odds are that Christopher Logue was there- marching for CND with Canon Collins and Bertrand Russell, hobnobbing with Trocchi and Tynan, collaborating at the Royal Court with Lindsay Anderson, acting and writing for Ken Russell, writing satirical songs for Peter Cook's Establishment Club, editing a column for Private Eye, having a lyric set to music by Donovan, and all the while working on the remake of Homer's Iliad that is one of the few significant, big poems of the age. How do you get to live a life like that? What fairy do you have to invite- or forget to invite- to the christening?
And now he's dead.
Only of course he's not. Why only the other day I was watching him play Cardinal Richelieu in the Devils. Bet if I went back and watched it again he'd still be there.
