Low Life: The Spectator Columns

2015 | Biography

Taking over from the late Jeffrey Bernard, Jeremy Clarke has been the 'Low Life' columnist for the London Spectator - the oldest weekly magazine in the English-speaking world - since 2001. He was diagnosed with cancer in April 2013. 'A week after I was told, believing that I didn't have long to live, I went to Butlins. If the two Butlins columns collected here have a peculiar or elegiac tone, that's why.' Indeed, the columns in this selection were all written post-diagnosis. 'Nearly two years later, to the disappointment of my friends, I'm still here. Reaching down inside my trousers to feel my testicles as I write, they are roughly the size of garden peas. The hormone treatment has caused them to wither on the vine. Otherwise I'm cheerful. In fact, I've never been happier. True story.'

Jeremy Clarke (Author)