Anna Ford examining Martin Amis's acne about half a lifetime ago
Like all great battles, it's not over till its over, and despite showing recent signs of dying down, the spat between the divine Ms Anna Ford and the mundane little tag team of Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens looks like it still has several rounds to go.
Anna, you'll doubtless remember, made a conciliatory gesture in the Guardian (for non-Brits, that's the paper read by people who think they ought to run the country, according to Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister). But it seems this may have merely been a feint while she launched a fresh counterattack on the enfant terrible's reputation in Peter Hitchens's rag, the Daily Mail (read by the wives of the people who run the country).
Anna gave away some tittle tattle at at a reception at Bayswater restaurant Le Cafe Anglais that was picked up by arch tittle-tattler Richard Kay, and it goes well beyond her previous griping about Martin's "immature whingeing narcissism" in the Guardian. For instance:
At the moment all I know is that he is being a silly little cretin,' she tells me. In another spirited salvo, she even suggested his fame sprang from his famous father, Lucky Jim author Kingsley Amis.
Explaining why she had gone on the offensive, she says: 'Look, everyone knows what it's like when there's someone annoying you and you just really want to say: "Excuse me. But who are you to say that?" I think I've made my points to Marty pretty clear. I was outraged by his comments and felt I had to say something and drive home that not everyone wants to listen to his egotistic waffle.'
I'm sure that there are about 58 million people in Britain who will say "Amen" or whatever the non-Christian equivalent is to that last sentiment. But there's more:
In a parting shot at Amis she said: 'I actually don't think he is all that fantastic a writer. Perhaps he is only where he is - and been able to enjoy his opportunities - because of who his father was. But that is just my own opinion and irrelevant to this particular matter.'
So now Fag-gate and its sibling Godfathergate have jumped the corral fence at the Guardian and are beginning to gallop across the pages of Fleet Street's finest tabloids, where it threatens to overshadow Brown's bullying, the Sterling crisis, and even Obama's treacherous betrayal of Britian's stance on the Falklands. How long will it be before the fearless preening popinjay himeslf swoops back in with a blitzkrieg attack on Anna's rear?
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
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