In a world increasingly populated by charlatans and idiots, we have just lost two outstanding intelligent, funny and talented individuals in one day – Jonathan Miller and Clive James (Obituaries, 28 November).
Although quite different in many respects, both contributed in intellect and humour in ways we so desperately need right now. Both are irreplaceable, whereas our television screens and newspapers are now full of people whose disappearance would be no loss if they were to vanish tomorrow.
Miller’s description of Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s Britain could be, word for word, an apt description of both Theresa May’s and Boris Johnson’s tenure in Downing Street. As we face a dreadful world of Brexit and Trump, more than ever, where are others like them?
Garth Groombridge
Southampton
• The highlight of my design career was having the good fortune to work with Jonathan Miller, designing his book that accompanied the National Gallery exhibition On Reflection in 1998. Jonathan was oddly lacking in self-esteem and would ask us endlessly “Do you think this is all right?”, to which the answer was inevitably “Jonathan, it’s wonderful”. His question “It’s rather good, don’t you think?” became the publisher’s and my catchphrase for the project. He was rather good in so, so many ways.
Chloë Alexander
Ludlow, Shropshire
• The one quote from Clive James that I shall always remember dates from the time he was the Observer’s TV critic. A week after Mrs Thatcher’s first victory in 1979, he began his column with the words “Now that the incoming Tory Government has made greed patriotic...” Not much has changed in the past 40 years.
John Marriott
North Hykeham, Lincolnshire
• Clive James’s TV reviews for the Observer were so funny. He once described the formidable dog and horse trainer Barbara Woodhouse, whose techniques included breathing up the horse’s nostrils. “After that, the beast will do her bidding, and so would you.”
Peter Lowthian
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
• Not only was Clive James a remarkable writer, he was also extraordinarily self-deprecating. When I helped run the Oxford University Literary Society when he was at the height of his fame he offered to speak for us and waived his fee, because, in his words, “I am embarrassed by how abysmal I was last time I spoke at the university.”
Steven Pollard
Pertenhall, Bedfordshire
• So sad to hear that Clive James has died – he had cheated death for so long that it seemed he would last for ever. Too much to hope for, of course, but we have an amazing body of work to remember him by, including some of the most moving poetry I have ever read.
Cherry Weston
Wolverhampton
• I will always be grateful to Jonathan Miller for one thing. He once defended the piles of unread books in his home by explaining that he absorbed the contents “by osmosis”. That’s the perfect excuse for me to buy more books, so thank you, Jonathan.
Giles Oakley
East Sheen, London
• Jonathan Miller was a brilliant man who, when interviewed many years ago, memorably described himself: “I’m not really a Jew; just Jew-ish, not the whole hog.”
Peter Negri
Alpington, Norfolk
• Clive James wrote: “Hemingway was always killing something. He called it an appetite for life.” Wonderful.
Brendan O’Brien
Waterford, Ireland
• Clive James and Jonathan Miller dead: just when we’re most in need of an increase in the gross national IQ, we get a drastic reduction.
John Lancaster
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition
