THE LONG OVERDUE REDISCOVERY OF CRITIC IAN NAIRN

摘要

There Once Was a breed of broadcaster who gave flesh to the 'Great British Grump'. Jeremy Paxman comes close; so occasionally does Andrew Neil. But my generation had the likes of Sir Robin Day, James Cameron (the peerless foreign correspondent, not the director) and the recently departed Ray Gosling. Such men made vital, engrossing television. Mention of Gosling forces me to add another name to the roll of honour: the architectural critic Ian Nairn. Like Gosling but less prodigious on the telly, Nairn was essential viewing and reading at home when I was growing up. For my father - a man who subscribed to the pre-paperback notion that you bought a book only if you intended to read it more than once - Nairn's output was the gold standard. Equally, his Sunday newspaper columns were devoured and briskly recommended to all in earshot.