Jeffrey Bernard is unwell – but Robert Bathurst revives racing rogue in style
Katherine Fidler watches the classic comedy in a new venue
Jeffrey Bernard is a conundrum. Should we like him? Pity him? Aspire, just a little, to imitate him?
He was an alcoholic. A gambler. Feckless. Lonely. Occasionally short-tempered, always talented. His was a gift countless writers have searched for, yearned for – driven themselves mad grasping for something that would never belong to them. Bernard embodied the romantic notion of the old Fleet Street hack, fleeting between bedlam and brilliance, a chaotic life punctuated by envy-inducing prose of timeless appeal.
But as Bernard knew only too well, such existence does not for a happy life make. It was no secret – he documented his descent quite candidly in weekly 600-word instalments, but cloaked in wit, charm and hilarious anecdotes it was all too easy to lose sight of the falling man while uplifted by his words.
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