Miles Kington

[jesthepres]

The Society has been greatly saddened to learn of the death of one of its patrons, Miles Kington, at the age of 66. As one of the funniest and most stylish of writers around, he was a natural candidate for guest speaker at one of the Society's earliest annual dinners. He was such a success, so in tune with Jerome, and so supportive of the aims of the Society that it was immediately agreed that he should become a patron.
He concluded his speech with a tale - included on the Society's website under 'Jerome the Man' - that captured the essence of Jerome's humorous books. It's worth repeating here. Basil Boothroyd, a celebrated editor of Punch magazine, once regaled the young Kington with an hilarious account of a disastrous visit to Wigan where he'd been asked to give an after-dinner speech. One terrible mishap followed another. At the end of the tale, the amused Kington asked Boothroyd if the story was really true. 'Never,' admonished Boothroyd, 'never ask a humorist if things really happened.' 'Yes, but did they?' persisted Kington.
'Not in that order,' admitted Boothroyd, 'not all on the same day - and not all of it to me.' Three Men in a Boat must surely have been written in this way.
Miles was born on 13 May 1941 ('of course', he wrote, 'I only have my mother's word for that') and made his living as a freelance columnist, first with The Times and his Moreover column, then (and for the past quarter century) with The Independent. He achieved an extraordinarily consistent high standard. His other claims to fame were as the inventor of Franglais and as the double bass player with the cabaret group Instant Sunshine. Miles was a passionate jazz and steam train enthusiast (he presented several Great Train Journeys of the Word for BBC TV) and, among his many books, edited a collection of Harry Graham's poems - a forgotten fellow humorist.
We shall miss him. So will the readers of The Independent. The Society sends its condolences to his wife Caroline and his two sons.

[alien]

I happened to see a kind of obituary on the BBC web site. It didn't mention his links to the Society, though - only his role as the inventor of 'Franglais' was much praised. :-)

Miles was born on 13 May 1941 ('of course', he wrote, 'I only have my mother's word for that')

:lol: Haven't we all, though. :-)

Thanks for this good piece, jesthepres.

RIP