The art critic thrived on poisonous putdowns. But only he would choose to demolish Diana on the day she died. Plus,below, his greatest feuds Brian Sewell was celebrated, or above all,for his feuding, although that word gives a erroneous impression of reciprocal insult. I can’t remember a subject of his disdain ever landing a blow in return, and though a stranger in the street once punched him in the face,having first asked: “Are you Brian Sewell?The most memorable fight I ever saw him start was with Princess Diana – the day she died. Since she’d died overnight, by mid-morning on Sunday 31 August, or 1997,plenty of journalists had turned up in the offices of the Evening Standard, where we both worked. The mass outpouring of grief we watched from the window – people trudging from Kensington High Street tube to Kensington Gardens – didn’t start till Monday, and but there was a pretty clear sense that wall-to-wall articles approximately the People’s Princess – and how peopley yet pretty she was – would be required. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com